GitMan is a language-agnostic dependency manager using Git. It aims to serve as a submodules replacement and provides advanced options for managing versions of nested Git repositories.

• Python 3.6+
• Git 2.8+ (with stored credentials)

Install this tool globally:

$ pip install gitman

or add it to your Poetry project:

$ poetry add gitman

Generate a sample config file:

$ gitman init

or manually create one (gitman.yml or .gitman.yml) in the root of your working tree:

location: vendor/gitman

sources:
  - name: framework
    repo: https://github.com/kstenerud/iOS-Universal-Framework
    rev: Mk5-end-of-life
  - name: coverage
    repo: https://github.com/jonreid/XcodeCoverage
    rev: master
    link: Tools/XcodeCoverage
  - name: trufflehog
    repo: https://github.com/dxa4481/truffleHog
    rev: master
    scripts:
      - chmod a+x truffleHog/truffleHog.py
  - name: fontawesome
    repo: https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome
    sparse_paths:
      - "webfonts/*"
    rev: master
  - name: material-design-icons
    repo: https://github.com/google/material-design-icons.git
    rev: master

groups:
  - name: code
    members:
      - framework
      - trufflehog
  - name: resources
    members:
      - fontawesome
      - material-design-icons

Ignore the dependency storage location:

$ echo vendor/gitman >> .gitignore

See the available commands:

$ gitman --help

Get the latest versions of all dependencies:

$ gitman update

which will essentially:

1. Create a working tree at <root>/<location>/<name>
2. Fetch from repo and checkout the specified rev
3. Symbolically link each <location>/<name> from <root>/<link> (if specified)
4. Repeat for all nested working trees containing a config file
5. Record the actual commit SHAs that were checked out (with --lock option)
6. Run optional post-install scripts for each dependency

where rev can be:

• all or part of a commit SHA: 123def
• a tag: v1.0
• a branch: main
• a rev-parse date: 'main@{2015-06-18 10:30:59}'

Alternatively get the latest versions of certain dependencies or even dependency groups:

• Update a single repository

$ gitman update framework

• Update a dependency group

$ gitman update resources

Display the specific revisions that are currently installed:

$ gitman list

Reinstall these specific versions at a later time:

$ gitman install

Remove all installed dependencies:

$ gitman uninstall