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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt | 30 |
1 files changed, 26 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt b/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt index c0342e5393..49cb6ca7c7 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-sparse-checkout.txt @@ -190,10 +190,32 @@ directory. SUBMODULES ---------- -If your repository contains one or more submodules, then those submodules will -appear based on which you initialized with the `git submodule` command. If -your sparse-checkout patterns exclude an initialized submodule, then that -submodule will still appear in your working directory. +If your repository contains one or more submodules, then submodules +are populated based on interactions with the `git submodule` command. +Specifically, `git submodule init -- <path>` will ensure the submodule +at `<path>` is present, while `git submodule deinit [-f] -- <path>` +will remove the files for the submodule at `<path>` (including any +untracked files, uncommitted changes, and unpushed history). Similar +to how sparse-checkout removes files from the working tree but still +leaves entries in the index, deinitialized submodules are removed from +the working directory but still have an entry in the index. + +Since submodules may have unpushed changes or untracked files, +removing them could result in data loss. Thus, changing sparse +inclusion/exclusion rules will not cause an already checked out +submodule to be removed from the working copy. Said another way, just +as `checkout` will not cause submodules to be automatically removed or +initialized even when switching between branches that remove or add +submodules, using `sparse-checkout` to reduce or expand the scope of +"interesting" files will not cause submodules to be automatically +deinitialized or initialized either. + +Further, the above facts mean that there are multiple reasons that +"tracked" files might not be present in the working copy: sparsity +pattern application from sparse-checkout, and submodule initialization +state. Thus, commands like `git grep` that work on tracked files in +the working copy may return results that are limited by either or both +of these restrictions. SEE ALSO |