How do I move an existing Git submodule within a Git repository?

by

Newer versions of git

Git now has native support for moving submodules:

Since git 1.8.5, git mv old/submod new/submod works as expected and does all the plumbing for you. You might want to use git 1.9.3 or newer, because it includes fixes for submodule moving.

Older versions of git

As mentioned in the comments, this answer refers to the steps needed with older versions of git.

The process is similar to how you’d remove a submodule (see How do I remove a submodule?):

  1. Edit .gitmodules and change the path of the submodule appropriately, and put it in the index with git add .gitmodules.

  2. If needed, create the parent directory of the new location of the submodule (mkdir -p new/parent).

  3. Move all content from the old to the new directory (mv -vi old/parent/submodule new/parent/submodule).

  4. Make sure Git tracks this directory (git add new/parent).

  5. Remove the old directory with git rm --cached old/parent/submodule.

  6. Move the directory .git/modules/old/parent/submodule with all its content to .git/modules/new/parent/submodule.

  7. Edit the .git/modules/new/parent/config file, make sure that worktree item points to the new locations, so in this example it should be worktree = ../../../../../new/parent/module. Typically there should be two more .. than directories in the direct path in that place.

  8. Edit the file new/parent/module/.git, make sure that the path in it points to the correct new location inside the main project .git folder, so in this example gitdir: ../../../.git/modules/new/parent/submodule.

    git status output looks like this for me afterwards:

     # On branch master
 # Changes to be committed:
 #   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
 #
 #       modified:   .gitmodules
 #       renamed:    old/parent/submodule -> new/parent/submodule
 #

  9. Finally, commit the changes.

More Related Contents:

  1. How do I remove a submodule?
  2. How can I specify a branch/tag when adding a Git submodule?
  3. git submodule tracking latest
  4. Git submodules in .gitmodules not initialized
  5. How do I pull from a Git repository through an HTTP proxy?
  6. How to un-submodule a Git submodule?
  7. Two git repositories in one directory?
  8. Git submodule push
  9. How to track untracked content?
  10. Create a submodule repository from a folder and keep its git commit history
  11. List submodules in a Git repository
  12. Set Git submodule to shallow clone & sparse checkout?
  13. How to set up a git project to use an external repo submodule?
  14. Git: can I suppress listing of ‘modified content’/dirty submodule entries in status, diff, etc?
  15. Git: Possible to use same submodule working copy by multiple projects?
  16. Git submodule to track remote branch
  17. Git submodule inside of a submodule (nested submodules)
  18. How to apply a git patch from one repository to another?
  19. How to only update specific git submodules?
  20. Git: track branch in submodule but commit in other submodule (possibly nested)
  21. Git submodule URL not including username?
  22. Is there a way to use a Mercurial repository as Git submodule?
  23. How do I manage conflicts with git submodules?
  24. Linking a single file from another git repository
  25. Nested git repositories without remotes (a.k.a. git submodule without remotes)
  26. Duplicate submodules with Git
  27. Highly coupled git submodules
  28. How to change a git submodule to point to a subfolder?
  29. Unable to track files within Git submodules
  30. Git update submodules recursively

Leave a Comment