gitmodules(5)

NAME

   gitmodules - defining submodule properties

SYNOPSIS

   $GIT_WORK_DIR/.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 "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. See description of
       update command in git-submodule(1) for their meaning. Note that the
       !command form is intentionally ignored here for security reasons.

   submodule.<name>.branch
       A remote branch name for tracking updates in the upstream
       submodule. If the option is not specified, it defaults to master. 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 submodules 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. When set to "all", it will never be
       considered modified (but will nonetheless show up in the output of
       status and commit when it has been staged), "dirty" will ignore all
       changes to the submodules work tree and takes only differences
       between the HEAD of the submodule and the commit recorded in the
       superproject into account. "untracked" will additionally let
       submodules with modified tracked files in their work tree show up.
       Using "none" (the default when this option is not set) also shows
       submodules that have untracked files in their work tree as changed.
       If this option is also present in the submodules 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-submodule" 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 unless the user explicitly asks for a non-shallow
       clone.

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) git-config(1)

GIT

   Part of the git(1) suite

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