phpman > man > gitmodules(5)

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. See description of update command in git-
           submodule(1) for their meaning. For security reasons, the !command form is not accepted
           here.

       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 2.34.1                                   02/26/2026                                GITMODULES(5)