GITMODULES(5) Git Manual GITMODULES(5)

NAME

gitmodules - Defining submodule properties

SYNOPSIS

$GIT_WORK_TREE/.gitmodules

DESCRIPTION

The .gitmodules file, located in the top-level directory of a Git
working tree, is a text file with a syntax matching the requirements
of git-config(1).

The file contains one subsection per submodule, and the subsection
value is the name of the submodule. The name is set to the path where
the submodule has been added unless it was customized with the --name
option of git submodule add. Each submodule section also contains the
following required keys:

submodule.<name>.path
Defines the path, relative to the top-level directory of the Git
working tree, where the submodule is expected to be checked out.
The path name must not end with a /. All submodule paths must be
unique within the .gitmodules file.

submodule.<name>.url
Defines a URL from which the submodule repository can be cloned.
This may be either an absolute URL ready to be passed to git-
clone(1) or (if it begins with ./ or ../) a location relative to
the superproject's origin repository.

In addition, there are a number of optional keys:

submodule.<name>.update
Defines the default update procedure for the named submodule,
i.e. how the submodule is updated by the git submodule update
command in the superproject. This is only used by git submodule
init to initialize the configuration variable of the same name.
Allowed values here are checkout, rebase, merge or none, but not
!command (for security reasons). See the description of the
update command in git-submodule(1) for more details.

submodule.<name>.branch
A remote branch name for tracking updates in the upstream
submodule. If the option is not specified, it defaults to the
remote HEAD. A special value of . is used to indicate that the
name of the branch in the submodule should be the same name as
the current branch in the current repository. See the --remote
documentation in git-submodule(1) for details.

submodule.<name>.fetchRecurseSubmodules
This option can be used to control recursive fetching of this
submodule. If this option is also present in the submodule's
entry in .git/config of the superproject, the setting there will
override the one found in .gitmodules. Both settings can be
overridden on the command line by using the
--[no-]recurse-submodules option to git fetch and git pull.

submodule.<name>.ignore
Defines under what circumstances git status and the diff family
show a submodule as modified. The following values are supported:

all
The submodule will never be considered modified (but will
nonetheless show up in the output of status and commit when
it has been staged).

dirty
All changes to the submodule's work tree will be ignored,
only committed differences between the HEAD of the submodule
and its recorded state in the superproject are taken into
account.

untracked
Only untracked files in submodules will be ignored. Committed
differences and modifications to tracked files will show up.

none
No modifications to submodules are ignored, all of committed
differences, and modifications to tracked and untracked files
are shown. This is the default option.

If this option is also present in the submodule's entry in
.git/config of the superproject, the setting there will override
the one found in .gitmodules.

Both settings can be overridden on the command line by using the
--ignore-submodules option. The git submodule commands are not
affected by this setting.

submodule.<name>.shallow
When set to true, a clone of this submodule will be performed as
a shallow clone (with a history depth of 1) unless the user
explicitly asks for a non-shallow clone.

NOTES

Git does not allow the .gitmodules file within a working tree to be a
symbolic link, and will refuse to check out such a tree entry. This
keeps behavior consistent when the file is accessed from the index or
a tree versus from the filesystem, and helps Git reliably enforce
security checks of the file contents.

EXAMPLES

Consider the following .gitmodules file:

[submodule "libfoo"]
path = include/foo
url = git://foo.com/git/lib.git

[submodule "libbar"]
path = include/bar
url = git://bar.com/git/lib.git

This defines two submodules, libfoo and libbar. These are expected to
be checked out in the paths include/foo and include/bar, and for both
submodules a URL is specified which can be used for cloning the
submodules.

SEE ALSO

git-submodule(1), gitsubmodules(7), git-config(1)

GIT

Part of the git(1) suite

Git 2.48.1 2025-01-13 GITMODULES(5)