git submodule update: Introduce --recursive to update nested submodules

In very large and hierarchically structured projects, one may encounter
nested submodules. In these situations, it is valuable to not only update
the submodules in the current repo (which is what is currently done by
'git submodule update'), but also to operate on all submodules at all
levels (i.e. recursing into nested submodules as well).

This patch teaches the new --recursive option to the 'git submodule update'
command. The patch also includes documentation and selftests.

Signed-off-by: Johan Herland <johan@herland.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

git-submodule.sh

@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ dashless=$(basename "$0" | sed -e 's/-/ /')
 USAGE="[--quiet] add [-b branch] [--reference <repository>] [--] <repository> <path>
    or: $dashless [--quiet] status [--cached] [--] [<path>...]
    or: $dashless [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
-   or: $dashless [--quiet] update [--init] [-N|--no-fetch] [--rebase] [--reference <repository>] [--merge] [--] [<path>...]
+   or: $dashless [--quiet] update [--init] [-N|--no-fetch] [--rebase] [--reference <repository>] [--merge] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
    or: $dashless [--quiet] summary [--cached] [--summary-limit <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]
    or: $dashless [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>
    or: $dashless [--quiet] sync [--] [<path>...]"
@@ -352,6 +352,7 @@ cmd_init()
 cmd_update()
 {
 	# parse $args after "submodule ... update".
+	orig_args="$@"
 	while test $# -ne 0
 	do
 		case "$1" in
@@ -384,6 +385,10 @@ cmd_update()
 			shift
 			update="merge"
 			;;
+		--recursive)
+			shift
+			recursive=1
+			;;
 		--)
 			shift
 			break
@@ -470,6 +475,12 @@ cmd_update()
 			die "Unable to $action '$sha1' in submodule path '$path'"
 			say "Submodule path '$path': $msg '$sha1'"
 		fi
+
+		if test -n "$recursive"
+		then
+			(unset GIT_DIR; cd "$path" && cmd_update $orig_args) ||
+			die "Failed to recurse into submodule path '$path'"
+		fi
 	done
 }