As I understand the doc, "to_latest_revision" should work similar to --remote as in "git submodule update --remote". However, GitPython still check remote branches even though "to_latest_revision" is set to False.

Basically I want to do this:
$ git submodule update --init --recursive

But since I have a branch in my .gitmodules file that doesn't exist remote then I get the following error:

File "C:/Users/myuser/fetch_submodules.py", line 84, in setup_repo
repo.submodule_update(recursive=True, force_reset=True, force_remove=True)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\git\repo\base.py", line 305, in submodule_update
return RootModule(self).update(_args, *_kwargs)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\git\objects\submodule\root.py", line 327, in update
progress=progress, dry_run=dry_run, force=force_reset, keep_going=keep_going)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\git\objects\submodule\base.py", line 529, in update
remote_branch = find_first_remote_branch(mrepo.remotes, self.branch_name)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\git\objects\submodule\util.py", line 38, in find_first_remote_branch
raise InvalidGitRepositoryError("Didn't find remote branch '%r' in any of the given remotes" % branch_name)
git.exc.InvalidGitRepositoryError: Didn't find remote branch ''.'' in any of the given remotes

Should GitPython care about my .gitmodules branch when I don't specify "to_latest_revision=True"?

Why I need to have a branch in .gitmodules that doesn't exist remote maybe doesn't make much sense but it has to do with Gerrit Code-Review submodule subscription that automatically updates the super repo for each submodule commit. See https://gerrit-documentation.storage.googleapis.com/Documentation/2.13.2/user-submodules.html#_defining_the_submodule_branch for further details.

.gitmodules
[submodule "common"]
path = common
url = ssh://gitrepourl/repo
branch = .

I hope i don't misunderstand "to_latest_revision".