Hi! I opened the following issue https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/3027 , but it also happen when using git on Linux. I have been told to send an email here for the issue. The git version I am using is the following: ``` git version 2.25.1 cpu: x86_64 no commit associated with this build sizeof-long: 8 sizeof-size_t: 8 ``` Terminal used : Bash Here is the command I ran to trigger this issue ``` GIT_TRACE2=1 git fetch --all --recurse-submodules=no ``` I expected the submodules to not be fetched and to see this command with traces activated ``` git fetch --append --no-auto-gc --recurse-submodules=no --no-write-commit-graph origin ``` But, here is the command line I got with traces activated and the submodules were fetched later on. ``` git fetch --append --no-auto-gc --no-write-commit-graph origin ``` Here are some repro steps with a repository on GitHub. 1. Clone with git bash https://github.com/DomLatr/RepoWithSubmodule 2. In the repo, run the following command : "git submodule update --init" 3. In the file .git\packed-refs, remove the line "f5165dbd5441d97e7fba6b55917a4c7865e5d7ee refs/remotes/origin/change-submodule" to simulate that the repository does not have the branch. 3a. If the line is not present in "packed-refs" or is straight up absent, you can remove the file ".git\refs\remotes\origin\change-submodule", that will have the same result. 4. Run the command : "GIT_TRACE2=1 git fetch --all --recurse-submodules=no" 5. Notice that the submodules **are** fetched since it uses the default value "--recurse-submodules=on-demand" instead of the value passed in the CLI It happens in a repository with submodules that needs would need to be fetched. The value of "fetch.recurseSubmodules" by default is "on-demand", which translate to "yes" when you need to fetch a new SHA that you don't have locally. I tried the 3 command line possibilities with --recurse-submodules and GIT_TRACE2=1. Here is the following results: GIT_TRACE2=1 git fetch --all --recurse-submodules=no => git fetch --append --no-auto-gc --no-write-commit-graph origin GIT_TRACE2=1 git fetch --all --recurse-submodules=on-demand => git fetch --append --no-auto-gc --no-write-commit-graph --recurse-submodules=on-demand origin GIT_TRACE2=1 git fetch --all --recurse-submodules=yes => git fetch --append --no-auto-gc --no-write-commit-graph --recurse-submodules origin Since the "--recurse-submodules=no" is not passed to the following commands that are ran automatically, I can see that it is using the default value of "--recuse-submodules=on-demand", which will end up fetching the submodules in this case. Thanks! Dominick
