[JENKINS-44170] Support for initializing and updating submodules before automatic merge

I get errors like

Failed to merge submodule XXX (not checked out)

in a multibranch pipeline project I use to automatically merge and build pull requests because it fails to initialize and update submodules automatically. There should be a way to do that by configuration, I think.

As a workaround I had to add a git hook to do it on each checkout (feel free to use it if you need):

mkdir -p ~/.git-templates/hooks

git config --global init.templatedir '~/.git-templates'

echo -e '#!/bin/sh\ngit submodule update --init --recursive' > ~/.git-templates/hooks/post-checkout

It's definitely not the cleanest solution so I strongly suggest a long-term solution for that.

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Originally reported by marcodeneu, imported from: Support for initializing and updating submodules before automatic merge

• status: Open
  
• priority: Major
  
• component(s): github-branch-source-plugin
  
• resolution: Unresolved
  
• votes: 0
  
• watchers: 1
  
• imported: 2025-12-02
  

I get errors like



Failed to merge submodule XXX (not checked out)





in a multibranch pipeline project I use to automatically merge and build pull requests because it fails to initialize and update submodules automatically. There should be a way to do that by configuration, I think.


As a workaround I had to add a git hook to do it on each checkout (feel free to use it if you need):



mkdir -p ~/.git-templates/hooks

git config --global init.templatedir '~/.git-templates'

echo -e '#!/bin/sh\ngit submodule update --init --recursive' > ~/.git-templates/hooks/post-checkout





It's definitely not the cleanest solution so I strongly suggest a long-term solution for that.