Initially reported for GFW on version 2.20.1, I have tested with Linux Mint Mate 19.1 Tessa which by default uses git version 2.17.1 It produces a config file with the relevant submodule entries looking like this: ---------------- [submodule] active = . [submodule "Submodule/Path"] url = https://github.com/organization/submodule.git ---------------- Instead of that, which is produced by manually initializing a submodule anytime after cloning: ---------------- [submodule "Submodule/Path"] active = true url = https://github.com/organization/submodule.git ---------------- Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.