NAME

gitmodules - Defining submodule properties

SYNOPSIS

$GIT_WORK_DIR/.gitmodules

DESCRIPTION

The .gitmodules file, located in the top-level directory of a Gitworking tree, is a text file with a syntax matching the requirementsof git-config[1].

The file contains one subsection per submodule, and the subsection valueis the name of the submodule. The name is set to the path where thesubmodule has been added unless it was customized with the —nameoption of git submodule add. Each submodule section also contains thefollowing required keys:

  • submodule..path

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

  • submodule..url

  • Defines a URL from which the submodule repository can be cloned.This may be either an absolute URL ready to be passed togit-clone[1] or (if it begins with ./ or ../) a locationrelative to the superproject’s origin repository.

In addition, there are a number of optional keys:

  • submodule..update

  • Defines the default update procedure for the named submodule,i.e. how the submodule is updated by "git submodule update"command in the superproject. This is only used by gitsubmodule init to initialize the configuration variable ofthe same name. Allowed values here are checkout, rebase,merge or none. See description of update command ingit-submodule[1] for their meaning. Note that the!command form is intentionally ignored here for securityreasons.

  • submodule..branch

  • A remote branch name for tracking updates in the upstream submodule.If the option is not specified, it defaults to master. A specialvalue of . is used to indicate that the name of the branch in thesubmodule should be the same name as the current branch in thecurrent repository. See the —remote documentation ingit-submodule[1] for details.

  • submodule..fetchRecurseSubmodules

  • This option can be used to control recursive fetching of thissubmodule. If this option is also present in the submodules entry in.git/config of the superproject, the setting there will override theone 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..ignore

  • Defines under what circumstances "git status" and the diff family showa submodule as modified. The following values are supported:
  • all

  • The submodule will never be considered modified (but willnonetheless show up in the output of status and commit when it hasbeen staged).

  • dirty

  • All changes to the submodule’s work tree will be ignored, onlycommitted differences between the HEAD of the submodule and itsrecorded 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 showup.

  • none

  • No modifiations to submodules are ignored, all of committeddifferences, and modifications to tracked and untracked files areshown. This is the default option.

If this option is also present in the submodules entry in .git/configof 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-submodule" option. The git submodule commands are notaffected by this setting.

  • submodule..shallow
  • When set to true, a clone of this submodule will be performed as ashallow clone (with a history depth of 1) unless the user explicitlyasks for a non-shallow clone.

EXAMPLES

Consider the following .gitmodules file:

  1. [submodule "libfoo"]
  2.     path = include/foo
  3.     url = git://foo.com/git/lib.git
  1. [submodule "libbar"]
  2.     path = include/bar
  3.     url = git://bar.com/git/lib.git

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

SEE ALSO

git-submodule[1]git-config[1]

GIT

Part of the git[1] suite