Is it possible to make Git aware of an existing .gitmodules file?

Question

I added a submodule:

git submodule add git://github.com/chneukirchen/rack.git rack

A file .gitmodules was created like:

Answer 1

Ok, so thanks to Adam I found the answer, was kind of obvious but nevertheless, here it is:

If you check what git submodule add does, you'd notice that it does three things:

1. Adds the lines to the .gitmodules file,
2. Clones the repo in the 'path' you determined in the command, and
3. Adds the module to the .git/config file.

So, basically the only difference between a repo with a submodule added by hand and the one added via the git submodule command is the contents of the repo itself.

Answering with the same example, you should:

$ git clone git://github.com/jgarber/redcloth.git plugins/redcloth

Add the following to the .git/config file*:

[submodule "redcloth"]
url = git://github.com/jgarber/redcloth.git

Make sure at least you add them to the git repo:

$ git add plugins/redcloth

And then check if git actually is "aware":

$ git submodule status
0766810ab46f1ed12817c48746e867775609bde8 plugins/redcloth (v4.2.8)
30fb044db6ba5ea874ebc44a43bbd80a42676405 rack (1.3.0-64-g30fb044)

*note that the "path" variable you use in the .gitmodules file isn't needed in that file