How to add git submodules with ease example
There are a number of ways to add Git submodules to an existing repository. You can clone from GitLab, you and do a Git submodule add from GitHub, or you can create all of your repositories and submodules manually. In this tutorial, we will focus on the later approach. That is, we will provide a Git submodules add example that doesn’t require any integration with GitHub or the need for any repositories to pre-exist. It’s a simple, bare bones approach to learning how the Git submodule add command works, and it’s the best way to learn how submodules in Git work.
How to add Git submodules
The steps to add Git submodules are:
- Create a repository with the git init command. This will be the parent module/repository.
- Add files and perform at least one commit to the parent repository before you add Git submodules
- Add a new subfolder in the Git repository
- In the new subfolder perform a git init command
- Add files and perform at least one commit on the repository in the subfolder
- From the root of the parent module, issue a git submodule add command and specify the path to the subfolder
- Perform a git status and verify the parent repository contains a file named .gitmodules
- Add the .gitmodules file to the index and then perform a commit.
The git submodule add command create a .gitmodules file.
If these steps complete without error, you have successfully performed a git submodule add.
Git submodule add commands
The actual commands used in the example are as follows:
submodule@example:~$ mkdir surface submodule@example:~$ cd surface submodule@example:~$ git init submodule@example:~$ touch destroyer.html submodule@example:~$ git add . submodule@example:~$ git commit -m "Add surfae fleet" submodule@example:~$ mkdir submarines submodule@example:~$ cd submarines submodule@example:~$ git init submodule@example:~$ touch nuclear.html submodule@example:~$ git add . submodule@example:~$ git commit -m "Add submarine to fleet" submodule@example:~$ cd .. submodule@example:~$ git submodule add ./submarines submodule@example:~$ git init submodule@example:~$ git add . submodule@example:~$ git commit -m "Add the submodule submarines"
How to add submodules in GitLab
If you use GitLab as your repository of choice, the following video demonstrates how to do a Git submodule add with GitLab.
Further git submodule add examples
This Git submodule add example was performed locally by initializing all of the required repositories. To see how to add a submodule through a clone, you might want to view either the GitHub submodule example or the GitLab example.
Start the conversation
0 comments