So Git apparently sees the fact that it's a symbolic link, instead of following through to the directory.
Yes, Git would see such a change, because that submodule is declared in the parent repo as a special entry in the index.
Making a symlink would replace that special entry by a file of another type.
What you could do is try playing with GIT_WORK_TREE
(as in "Including submodules in git checkout to GIT_WORK_TREE
in hook").
But a more simpler solution would be to:
- keep your submodule right where they are.
- add another clone of that submodule repo where you want it (
/path/to/sub
). - detect any changes from the original submodule folder with a
git --work-tree=/path/to/sub
status from within your duplicated submodule folder in your parent repos.