Remove everything from submodule directories (as they were before initial submodule update)

Question

I need to test a facility that calls git submodule update --init.

For the command to have a visible effect, I wish to reset submodule directories to the state they were in before I initially called submodule update -- i.e. a blank directory but still registered as a submodule.

If I just rm -rf everything under them, it's rather interpreted as a local change -- not what I need.

Removing and re-adding all the submodules is not something I wish to resort to unless there really is no better way.

Answer 1

git submodule deinit does that.