# Selectively clone Git submodules -- a useful feature? 3 messages from 2015-06-18 to 2016-03-16. Participants: Lars Schneider, Jens Lehmann, Stefan Beller. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/39673 ## Lars Schneider, 2015-06-18 20:55 Subject: Selectively clone Git submodules -- a useful feature? Message-ID: <162A5ADF-1FDD-432B-B5F8-672DF5B50EEC@gmail.com> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/162A5ADF-1FDD-432B-B5F8-672DF5B50EEC%40gmail.com ``` Hi, AFAIK Git has two ways to clone a repository with respect to submodules: (1) Plain clone of just the repository itself: git clone git://github.com/foo/bar.git (2) Recursive clone of the repository including all its submodules: git clone --recursive git://github.com/foo/bar.git I am working on a big cross platform project and on certain platforms I don't need certain submodules. AFAIK there is no way to selectively clone only a subset of the submodules with the standard command line interface. I wonder if something like an exclude pattern for submodules would be of general interest. I imagine a call like this after a plain "clone" operation: git submodule update --init --recursive --exclude 3rdParty/Windows/* or even: git clone --recursive --exclude 3rdParty/Windows/* git://github.com/foo/bar.git Please let me know what you think. Thanks, Lars PS: I posted this question already on the Google Git group here: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/git-users/jyKsd45d2MA I am sorry, but I discovered this mailing list afterwards and I am not sure which one is the appropriate one. Please advise. --- https://larsxschneider.github.io/ ``` ## Jens Lehmann, 2015-06-19 19:08 Subject: Re: Selectively clone Git submodules -- a useful feature? Message-ID: <558468B2.2010307@web.de> URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/558468B2.2010307%40web.de In-Reply-To: <162A5ADF-1FDD-432B-B5F8-672DF5B50EEC@gmail.com> ``` Am 18.06.2015 um 22:55 schrieb Lars Schneider: > AFAIK Git has two ways to clone a repository with respect to submodules: > > (1) Plain clone of just the repository itself: > git clone git://github.com/foo/bar.git > > (2) Recursive clone of the repository including all its submodules: > git clone --recursive git://github.com/foo/bar.git > > I am working on a big cross platform project and on certain platforms I don't > need certain submodules. AFAIK there is no way to selectively clone only a > subset of the submodules with the standard command line interface. I wonder > if something like an exclude pattern for submodules would be of general interest. > I imagine a call like this after a plain "clone" operation: > > git submodule update --init --recursive --exclude 3rdParty/Windows/* Git already supports that use case: Just set the "submodule..update" configuration to "none" for all submodules you aren't interested in and "git submodule update" will always skip them. You can also set this config option globally: git config --global submodule..update=none That'll set the default for all repositories of the logged in user on this computer to not update submodule . > or even: > > git clone --recursive --exclude 3rdParty/Windows/* git://github.com/foo/bar.git git clone will be influenced by the global setting. If you just want to skip submodule for a single clone you can do it like this: git -c submodule..update=none clone --recursive git://github.com/foo/bar.git ``` ## Stefan Beller, 2016-03-16 20:47 Subject: Re: Selectively clone Git submodules -- a useful feature? Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAGZ79kbu0JHbk8_CeY%2B2hDATMJ_QkYBhMbyh78jqKyf%2Bh%2BvpdA%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: <162A5ADF-1FDD-432B-B5F8-672DF5B50EEC@gmail.com> ``` On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 1:55 PM, Lars Schneider wrote: > Hi, Hi, sorry for a real late answer to this, > > AFAIK Git has two ways to clone a repository with respect to submodules: > > (1) Plain clone of just the repository itself: > git clone git://github.com/foo/bar.git > > (2) Recursive clone of the repository including all its submodules: > git clone --recursive git://github.com/foo/bar.git > > I am working on a big cross platform project and on certain platforms I don't need certain submodules. AFAIK there is no way to selectively clone only a subset of the submodules with the standard command line interface. I wonder if something like an exclude pattern for submodules would be of general interest. I imagine a call like this after a plain "clone" operation: > > git submodule update --init --recursive --exclude 3rdParty/Windows/* > > or even: > > git clone --recursive --exclude 3rdParty/Windows/* git://github.com/foo/bar.git > > Please let me know what you think. I am looking forward for exactly that feature, I even proposed exactly this (in form of RFC patches, see http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/281670) I plan on reviving this soon. Did you solve this problem as Jens proposed or are you still looking for a solution? Thanks, Stefan > > > Thanks, > Lars > > > PS: I posted this question already on the Google Git group here: > https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/git-users/jyKsd45d2MA > > I am sorry, but I discovered this mailing list afterwards and I am not sure which one is the appropriate one. Please advise. > > > --- > https://larsxschneider.github.io/-- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html ```