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gitgit-submodulessha

Where does Git store the SHA1 of the commit for a submodule?

I know that when you add a submodule to a git repository it tracks a particular commit of that submodule referenced by its sha1.

I'm trying to find where this sha1 value is stored.

The .gitmodules and .git/config files only show the paths for the submodule, but not the sha1 of the commit.

The git-submodule(1) reference only speaks of a gitlink entry and the gitmodules(5) reference doesn't say anything about this either.

Solution

  • It is stored in Git's object database directly. The tree object for the directory where the submodule lives will have an entry for the submodule's commit (this is the so-called "gitlink").

    Try doing git ls-tree master <path-to-directory-containing-submodule> (or just git ls-tree master if the submodule lives in the top-level directory).