How to browse submodule in Git Extensions?

Question

I am trying out basic submodule functionality in Git Extensions. I have a repository called "sub" and a repository called "super"; sub is a submodule of super.

When I open the super repository in Git Extensions, I can view the history of it and do normal stuff in it as usual. I would like to work with the submodule repository. How do I do this with Git Extensions?

Under the Submodules menu, I found the promising "Browse submodule" menu with an entry for "sub". But when I click sub, Git Extensions only refreshes the super project repository. It doesn't switch to the submodule repository.

Basically what I want to do is have Git Extensions show me the submodule repository and let me do commits in it, branch it, push/pull it, etc. How do I do that?

Answer 1

I asked this on the Git Extensions mailing list. Turns out this was a new bug in Git Extensions caused by the latest version of msysgit. It should be fixed in a future version of Git Extensions (fix has already been merged into the main Git Extensions repository on GitHub).

Answer 2

Current version of Git Extensions (2.43) has address line on its toolbar. So you can simply change current repository with the help of this line.

But also, there is a button with a blue symbol near that line. This button do exactly what you want. Just click this button and select the desired submodule to browse.

If you current repository has a super repository it will be shown in that list too. So this is very useful feature which allows you to change between repositories of the submodules.

Answer 3

Not sure about the git extension part, but you need to change directory to the sub-module directory (it is an independent repository!) before you can commit those changes.

But, you do need to create a branch first to hold the commit because the sub-module repo is in a 'detached head' state - that is it is at a specific commit, not at the head of a branch. If you don't then the next submodule update will not only over-write your changes, but you won't have any easy way of finding your previous changes that you may wish to merge into them.