issue with git submodules and a clone.defaultRemoteName different than origin?

From: Jacob Keller <jacob.e.keller@intel.com>
Date: Jun 3, 2025, 23:06 UTC
Message-ID: <4f638125-39e0-43a1-9c58-35c2d433042f@intel.com>

Hi,

I recently ran into an issue with git submodules because my clone.defaultRemoteName is not "origin":

Show 6 quoted lines

> fatal: 'origin' does not appear to be a git repository
> fatal: Could not read from remote repository.
> 
> Please make sure you have the correct access rights
> and the repository exists.
> fatal: Fetched in submodule path 'submodule', but it did not contain <redacted>. Direct fetching of that commit failed.

This appears to be due to the builtin/submodule--helper hard coding "origin" in "repo_get_default_remote".

I am unsure what the best way to fix this is. I could have the function read the clone.defaultRemoteName, or I could have it check if there is only one remote then use that.. or maybe add a new submodule remote name option?

Thoughts on what the best solution is here?

I'm thinking the following:

1) check if there is only one remote, then use that
2) check clone.defaultRemoteName and use that otherwise
3) fall back to origin otherwise?

Perhaps we could insert a step 0 where we add a config option which will have submodule clones use the given remote name + use that as the default when in detached head state?

Thanks, Jake