gitupdate - Update Git Repositories

Overview

The gitupdate command safely pulls the latest changes for every git repository found under a root directory. Repositories are updated in parallel. Any repository that has uncommitted changes, unpushed commits, or no identifiable default branch is skipped automatically — it is never modified. Live progress is written to the console as each repository completes, followed by a summary table.

Syntax

nmbl gitupdate [path] [options]

Arguments

path - Root directory containing git repositories to update. Defaults to the current directory.

Options

--threads, -t <n> - Number of parallel workers (1–20). Defaults to the service default.
--depth, -d <n> - Maximum directory search depth (1–10). Defaults to the service default.

Output

Prints the root path, search depth, and parallel worker count. As each repository completes, a status line is written:

Pulled successfully → ↓ <repo> updated
Already current → ✓ <repo> up to date
Skipped due to uncommitted changes → ⚠ <repo> skipped (uncommitted)
Skipped due to unpushed commits → ⚠ <repo> skipped (unpushed)
Skipped — no default branch found → ⚠ <repo> skipped (no default branch)
Error → ✗ <repo> error: <message>

After all repositories finish, a Summary table shows totals for Updated, Already up to date, Skipped (safe), and Errors. If any repositories were skipped due to local changes, a detail table lists them.

Exit Codes

0 - Success, including when no repositories are found.
1 - The specified directory does not exist or an unexpected error occurs.

Examples

Update all repositories in a directory

nmbl gitupdate ~/projects

Finds and updates all git repositories under ~/projects.

Update the current directory tree

nmbl gitupdate

Updates all repositories starting from the current directory.

Limit parallelism

nmbl gitupdate ~/projects --threads 4

Uses at most 4 parallel workers instead of the default.

Limit search depth

nmbl gitupdate ~/projects --depth 2

Only searches two directory levels deep when looking for repositories.

Morning update routine

nmbl gitupdate ~/workspace

Start your day by pulling all repositories in one operation.

Use Cases

Microservices development

# Update all microservices at once
nmbl gitupdate ~/services

# Then check their status
nmbl gitstatus ~/services

Preparing for offline work

# Update all repositories before disconnecting from the network
nmbl gitupdate ~/workspace

See also offlineprep for a combined git-update and NuGet-source preparation command.

How safe skipping works

The command never forces a pull. A repository is skipped (without error) when:

It has staged or unstaged changes that have not been committed.
It has local commits that have not been pushed to the remote.
No default branch (main or master) can be identified.

Skipped repositories are counted separately in the summary so you can review them after the run.

gitstatus - Check status of git repositories without modifying them
offlineprep - Prepare development environment for offline work