I'd like to create a repo which pulls in a remote repo.
For example, let's say jQuery as a submodule:
git://github.com/jquery/jquery.git
What would be the process of creating a repo with jQuery as a submodule and adding my own external as a remote repo.
Also once this is setup, if I push / pull to my own remote, will the external remain intact?
Submodules are really, really easy to reference and use. Assuming you already have MyWebApp set up as a repo, from terminal issue these commands:
cd MyWebApp
git submodule add git://github.com/jquery/jquery.git externals/jquery
This will create a directory named externals/jquery
* and link it to the github jquery repository. Now we just need to init the submodule and clone the code to it:
git submodule update --init --recursive
You should now have all the latest code cloned into the submodule. If the jquery repo changes and you want to pull the latest code down, just issue the submodule update
command again. Please note: I typically have a number of external repositories in my projects, so I always group the repos under an "externals" directory.
The online Pro Git Book has some good information on submodules (and git in general) presented in an easy-to-read fashion. Alternately, git help submodule
will also give good information. Or take a look at the Git Submodule Tutorial on the git wiki.
I noticed this blog entry which talks about submodules and compares them to Subversion's svn:externals mechanism: http://speirs.org/blog/2009/5/11/understanding-git-submodules.html
* As a best practice, you should always place your submodules in their own directory, such as Externals. If you don't, your root project directory can become very cluttered very fast.