{"thread":{"id":"63924","subject":"Partial-cloning or filtering a submodule","startedAt":"2025-08-07T11:34:48Z","lastAt":"2025-08-07T11:34:48Z","messageCount":1,"participants":["Petar Vutov"],"isPatch":false,"patchVersion":null,"patchTotal":null},"messages":[{"id":"523745","messageId":"b3dfaa93-fdd7-4be4-8b5b-f453146d6c14@app.fastmail.com","threadId":"63924","inReplyTo":null,"subject":"Partial-cloning or filtering a submodule","fromName":"Petar Vutov","fromEmail":"pvutov@imap.cc","sentAt":"2025-08-07T11:34:26Z","receivedAt":"2025-08-07T11:34:48Z","isPatch":false,"sender":{"key":"pvutov@imap.cc","avatar":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/11945431?v=4"},"body":"When adding a submodule, I usually only need part of the submodule repository.\n\nAs far as I know there is currently no support for partial-cloning submodules. Before I try my hand at this, I want to ask if it makes sense as a feature.\n\nI imagine it like this: \n* new `submodule.<name>.filter` field in .gitmodules\n* on `submodule update`, the plumbing described at https://git-scm.com/docs/partial-clone is used to filter the specified paths\n* if we do `submodule update --recursive`, submodules excluded by the filter-spec are not filled in, maybe they also don't show up in `git submodule status --recursive` etc\n\nThoughts?\n"}]}