An alternative to the official Git Submodule features. Same principles, but ridiculously much simpler to use and maintain.

The submodules are described in a plain text file at the root of the repository (.gitsubmodules) and that is the only place describing them.

The described submodules repositories can be added to the working tree through a command. Conversely, repositories in the working tree can be added to the submodule description file through a command.

Adding a submodule is easy: either edit the .gitsubmodules file directly, or just clone the submodule's repository in your working tree and add it.

Unlike Git Submodule, this tool allows you to specify alternative source URLs for submodules.

Usage: git-submodules.py COMMAND PARAM0 PARAM1...

The important commands are add, status, update-description, and update-directory.

COMMAND add

PARAMETERS list of local paths to Git repositories. No effect if no path is given.

EFFECT updates the description file to include each path so that it matches their current state.

COMMAND foreach

PARAMETERS list of local paths to Git repositories and a shell command to execute as last parameter. All entries from the description file if no path is given.

EFFECT executes the shell command for each submodule. See 'help foreach' for more details.

COMMAND foreach-enabled

PARAMETERS list of local paths to Git repositories and a shell command to execute as last parameter. All entries from the description file if no path is given.

EFFECT executes the shell command for each submodule, provided they are enabled. See help foreach for more details.

COMMAND foreach-enabled-recursive

PARAMETERS list of local paths to Git repositories and a shell command to execute as last parameter. All entries from the description file if no path is given.

EFFECT executes the shell command for each submodule, provided they are enabled. The execution recurses into each such submodule. See help foreach for more details.

COMMAND foreach-recursive

PARAMETERS list of local paths to Git repositories and a shell command to execute as last parameter. All entries from the description file if no path is given.

EFFECT executes the shell command for each submodule. The execution recurses into each submodule. See help foreach for more details.

COMMAND from-official

PARAMETERS list of local paths to official Git Submodules. All official Git Submdule are selected if no path is given.

EFFECT updates the description to include the selected official Git Submodules. These do not need to have been initialized.

COMMAND help

PARAMETERS one COMMAND.

EFFECT provides detailed help about a command.

COMMAND list

PARAMETERS list of local paths. The root repository's path is selected if no path is given.

EFFECT lists all submodules in those directories.

COMMAND remove

PARAMETERS list of paths to submodules. All described submodules are selected if no path is given.

EFFECT removes these submodules from the description and removes their local copy.

COMMAND remove-description

PARAMETERS list of paths to submodules. All described submodules are selected if no path is given.

EFFECT removes these submodules from the description.

COMMAND remove-directory

PARAMETERS list of paths to submodules. All described submodules are selected if no path is given.

EFFECT removes the local copy of these submodules.

COMMAND seek

PARAMETERS list of paths. The repository's root is used if no path is given.

EFFECT lists subfolders eligible to become submodules.

COMMAND status

PARAMETERS list of paths to submodules. All described submodules are selected if no path is given.

EFFECT compares description and local copy of the submodules.

COMMAND to-official

PARAMETERS list of paths to submodules. All described submodules are selected if no path is given.

EFFECT Not available.

COMMAND update-description

PARAMETERS list of paths to submodules. All described submodules are selected if no path is given.

EFFECT updates the description file to match the submodules' local copies.

COMMAND update-directory

PARAMETERS list of paths to submodules. All described submodules are selected if no path is given.

EFFECT updates the local copy of the submodules to match the description file.

• SNSM_COMMIT is the commit for this submodule.
• SNSM_ENABLED is 1 if the submodule is enabled, 0 otherwise.
• SNSM_SOURCES is a newline separated list of anonymous sources for the submodule.
• SNSM_NAMED_SOURCES is a newline separated list of named sources for the submodule. Each entry is first the name, a space, then the source.
• SNSM_TARGET_TYPE is the target type for this submodule. commit, branch, and tag are all 3 possible values.
• SNSM_TARGET is the actual target for this submodule. It is equal to SNSM_COMMIT if SNSM_TARGET_TYPE is commit.
• SNSM_TARGET_OVERRIDES_COMMIT is 1 if the submodule is configured to use the target instead of the commit, 0 otherwise.
• SNSM_ROOT is an absolute path to the root repository.
• SNSM_ABSOLUTE_PATH is an absolute path to the submodule.
• SNSM_PATH is a path to the submodule relative to the direct parent repository.
• SNSM_PARENT is an absolute path to the direct parent repository.
• SNSM_PARENTS is a newline separated list of absolute path to each of the parent repositories.

[submodule "ardupilot"]
   source = git@my_local_server.userdomain:repos/ardupilot
   source = https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot
   commit = 30e8160aa191e0a0e3a4676b33e0f153d09856ff
   enable = True
[submodule "meta/git-submodules"]
   source = git@my_local_server.userdomain:repos/git-submodules
   source = https://git.noot-noot.org/clone/git-submodules
   source = https://github.com/nsensfel/git-submodules
   commit = d2c637e9f175b4a4618983253ec96a1edaff139b
   enable = True