I'm running git 2.14.2 on Ubuntu 16.04. Compare the behavior of
> git clone --branch pu --depth 1 https://github.com/git/git git-pu which clones only the latest commit of the pu branch and > mkdir tmp && cd tmp && git init > git submodule add --branch pu --depth 1 https://github.com/git/git \ git-pu which gives the error fatal: 'origin/pu' is not a commit and a branch 'pu' cannot be created from it Unable to checkout submodule 'git-pu' Investigating further, there is indeed only one commit in the local repo: > cd git-pu > git log --oneline | wc -l 1 But that commit is the head of master. > git branch -a * master remotes/origin/master remotes/origin/HEAD -> origin/master This appears to be because git-submodule--helper does not accept a --branch option. Using the --depth N option causes it to only clone N commits from the default branch, which generally do not include the desired branch. Thus, the next step, git checkout -f -q -B "$branch" "origin/$branch" fails, and provides the rather confusing error message above. I'd suggest that git-submodule--helper learn a --branch option consistent with git clone, and if that is impossible, that git submodule add rejects the simultaneous use of both the --branch and --depth options. --tjf
