Subject: Re: [PATCH v7 05/11] submodule: allow runtime enabling extensions.submodulePathConfig

From: Patrick Steinhardt <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2026 08:25:50 +0100

On Sat, Dec 20, 2025 at 12:15:22PM +0200, Adrian Ratiu wrote:
> diff --git a/Documentation/config/init.adoc b/Documentation/config/init.adoc
> index e45b2a8121..293a2ddbdf 100644
> --- a/Documentation/config/init.adoc
> +++ b/Documentation/config/init.adoc
> @@ -18,3 +18,9 @@ endif::[]
>  	See `--ref-format=` in linkgit:git-init[1]. Both the command line
>  	option and the `GIT_DEFAULT_REF_FORMAT` environment variable take
>  	precedence over this config.
> +
> +init.autoSetupSubmodulePathConfig::
> +	A boolean that specifies if `git init` and `git clone` should
> +	automatically set `extensions.submodulePathConfig` to `true`. This
> +	allows all new repositories to automatically use the submodule path
> +	extension. Defaults to `false` when unset.

Nit: I would have called this `init.defaultSubmodulePathConfig` so that
it fits in better with the other configuration we have that impatcs how
we set up repository extensions.

> diff --git a/setup.c b/setup.c
> index 428427d689..3e05fe7c58 100644
> --- a/setup.c
> +++ b/setup.c
> @@ -2712,6 +2712,16 @@ int init_db(const char *git_dir, const char *real_git_dir,
>  					  initial_branch, flags & INIT_DB_QUIET);
>  	create_object_directory();
>  
> +	repo_config_get_bool(the_repository, "init.autoSetupSubmodulePathConfig",
> +			     &auto_setup_submodule_path_config);
> +	if (auto_setup_submodule_path_config) {
> +		int version = 0;
> +		repo_config_get_int(the_repository, "core.repositoryformatversion", &version);
> +		if (version < 1)
> +			repo_config_set(the_repository, "core.repositoryformatversion", "1");
> +		repo_config_set(the_repository, "extensions.submodulepathconfig", "true");
> +	}
> +
>  	if (repo_settings_get_shared_repository(the_repository)) {
>  		char buf[10];
>  		/* We do not spell "group" and such, so that

I think that this logic woudl be better located in
`initialize_repository_version()`, which is also where we set up all the
other extensions. Feel free to disregard though in case there's a good
reason you don't do it there.

Patrick