[[!comment format=mdwn
 username="joey"
 subject="""comment 5"""
 date="2023-04-20T16:45:38Z"
 content="""
The above issue is being discussed at
[[bugs/Git_checkout_fails_using_--recurse-submodules]].

DavidD's comment #2 is misleading, `git submodule update` does work fine when
you've checkout out a branch and want to update an existing submodule.

When `git submodule update` does not work 100% is the case where you checked out
a branch, added a submodule in that branch, and then checked out another
branch that does not contain the submodule. What happens then is:

	warning: unable to rmdir 'sub': Directory not empty

And the solution is to `rm -rf sub` manually. This is essentially the same
problem discussed above on this page where it talks about deleting a whole
submodule.
"""]]