# add/init all git submodules that are referenced in .gitmodules 2 messages from 2021-10-05 to 2021-10-06. Participants: Alexander Mills, Jeff King. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/56650 ## Alexander Mills, 2021-10-05 23:52 Subject: add/init all git submodules that are referenced in .gitmodules Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CA%2BKyZp75fjj9T0LjkpEjLMVf5KNguNZ1Ycxbb26ZnCGrK5zLAQ%40mail.gmail.com ``` I am looking for this feature: https://stackoverflow.com/a/69458406/1223975 it is really confusing as to why it doesn't exist -- Alexander D. Mills New cell phone # (415)730-1805 linkedin.com/in/alexanderdmills Sender notified by Mailtrack 10/05/21, 04:51:40 PM Remove ``` ## Jeff King, 2021-10-06 19:28 Subject: Re: add/init all git submodules that are referenced in .gitmodules Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/YV3444Bvvfzp37Di%40coredump.intra.peff.net In-Reply-To: ``` On Tue, Oct 05, 2021 at 04:52:00PM -0700, Alexander Mills wrote: > I am looking for this feature: > > https://stackoverflow.com/a/69458406/1223975 > > it is really confusing as to why it doesn't exist I'm not sure I understand what is being asked for. If you just want to initialize and populate all of the modules in .gitmodules (which is what I thought your subject line was asking for), then: git submodule update --init will do that (though of course if you are cloning anyway, you can just say "--recurse-submodules). But reading the original SO question, it is about finding repositories in the current directory that _aren't_ submodules, and then adding them. But those ones wouldn't be referenced in .gitmodules. For that problem, no, I don't think there's an easy command, and you have to dig for them (though "git ls-files -o --exclude-standard" is perhaps a good way to locate them). But it's also not something I'd expect to be a very common operation, which is why there's not an existing command to do it. -Peff ```