# gitmodules(5) Manual Page

## 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 linkgit: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 linkgit: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 linkgit: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. See the `--remote` documentation in linkgit: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.

## 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

linkgit:git-submodule[1] linkgit:git-config[1]

## GIT

Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite