Description

sp-ricard-valverde

opened on Feb 27, 2018

Issue body actions

Git submodules allow relative URLs which are based on the parent repo URL.

Right now this is not supported, ie. adding a submodule configuration in .gitmodules with a relative URL will fail when cloning in the add or update Submodule.

A sample stack trace when calling submodule.update(init=True):

GitCommandError
Cmd('git') failed due to: exit code(128)
  cmdline: git clone -n --separate-git-dir=/opt/parent_project/.git/modules/submodule_project -v ../../my-company/submodule-project.git /opt/parent_project/submodule_project
  stderr: 'fatal: repository '../../my-company/submodule-project.git' does not exist
'
git/cmd.py in wait at line 291
git/util.py in finalize_process at line 341
git/repo/base.py in _clone at line 880
git/repo/base.py in clone_from at line 925
git/objects/submodule/base.py in _clone_repo at line 261
git/objects/submodule/base.py in update at line 524

GitPython==2.1.1
Still present in the current revision 8f76463

Reacted by Philipp Hasper, Rok Roškar, Bruceforce, Sam Fuller, Alexander Zhogov and PhilippSelenium

Activity

1. Byron

   added

   acknowledged

   on Mar 17, 2018
2. PhilLab commented on Oct 8, 2018

   

   PhilLab

   on Oct 8, 2018

   More actions

   Similar but slightly different message in our system, when calling

   REPO = Repo(ARGS.repositoryPath)
   REPO.submodule_update(recursive=True)
   

   File "C:\Program Files\Python36\lib\site-packages\git\repo\base.py", line 353, in submodule_update
       return RootModule(self).update(*args, **kwargs)
     File "C:\Program Files\Python36\lib\site-packages\git\objects\submodule\root.py", line 339, in update
       keep_going=keep_going)
     File "C:\Program Files\Python36\lib\site-packages\git\objects\submodule\root.py", line 201, in update
       smr.fetch(progress=progress)
     File "C:\Program Files\Python36\lib\site-packages\git\remote.py", line 789, in fetch
       res = self._get_fetch_info_from_stderr(proc, progress)
     File "C:\Program Files\Python36\lib\site-packages\git\remote.py", line 675, in _get_fetch_info_from_stderr
       proc.wait(stderr=stderr_text)
     File "C:\Program Files\Python36\lib\site-packages\git\cmd.py", line 415, in wait
       raise GitCommandError(self.args, status, errstr)
   git.exc.GitCommandError: Cmd('git') failed due to: exit code(128)
     cmdline: git fetch --progress -v __new_origin__
     stderr: 'fatal: '../HelperModule.git' does not appear to be a git repository
   fatal: Could not read from remote repository.
   

   We are on a Gitlab instance where relative submodule URLs are a must have:

   If you are using GitLab 8.12+ and your submodule is on the same GitLab server, you must update your .gitmodules file to use relative URLs
3. sfuller commented on Dec 30, 2018

   

   sfuller

   on Dec 30, 2018

   More actions

   I was able to workaround this issue by manually resolving the relative path in the .gitmodules file. If you care about the .gitmodules file retaining the relative path url, you could easily just set the original url back to the .gitmodules file after operating on the repo with gitpython.

   for submodule in repo.submodules:
   
       # Hack around gitpython bug: https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/issues/730
       if submodule.url.startswith('..'):
           submodule_repo_name = submodule.url[3:]  # Strip off '../'
           repo_parent_url, _ = os.path.split(origin.url)
           actual_url = os.path.join(repo_parent_url, submodule_repo_name)
           with submodule.config_writer() as writer:
               writer.set('url', actual_url)
   
       print(f'Processing submodule {submodule.name}')
       submodule.update(init=True)

   Reacted by Bruceforce
4. Bruceforce commented on Dec 31, 2018

   

   Bruceforce

   on Dec 31, 2018

   More actions

   Another workaround I'm currently using is to use git directly as described in https://gitpython.readthedocs.io/en/stable/tutorial.html#using-git-directly

   for sm in repo.submodules:
         # Calling git directly for own submodules since using relative path is not working in gitpython
         # see https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/issues/730
         if sm.url[0:3] == '../':
             repo.git.submodule('init', sm.name)
             repo.git.submodule('update', sm.name)
         # For external submodules we can use the update function of gitpython
         else:
             sm.update()

   Reacted by Sam Fuller, sp-ricard-valverde and PhilippSelenium
5. PhilLab

   added 2 commits that reference this issue on May 19, 2019

   Towards handling of relative submodule paths

   9965963

   Relative URLs for submodules

   04c9924
6. david0

   added 3 commits that reference this issue on Jun 11, 2025

   fix updating submodules with relative urls

   This issue will close once commit 200b03b is merged into the 'main' branch.

   200b03b

   fix updating submodules with relative urls

   This issue will close once commit 76f3bf3 is merged into the 'main' branch.

   76f3bf3

   fix updating submodules with relative urls

   This issue will close once commit 1d80891 is merged into the 'main' branch.

   1d80891
7. Byron

   closed this as completedin #2051on Jun 11, 2025

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