submodules

So, I actually have another question I wasn't able to get to in this example (which has color - sorry - less -F displays it decently)

What is shown here is that trying to add submodules in this repo doesn't add the .gitmodules file - I can do it manually, but why isn't it adding the file? There's a .git/modules directory populated with the right stuff, but no .gitmodules file.

The initial question I was trying to demonstrate was that I've got a repo with submodules. When I push branches to most of the modules, a: git branch -r shows them for everyone. However, in one repo/module (I think it's a repo created with git --bare --shared) no one else can see (or pull) the remote branches and if I make a new clone of that repo as myself, I can't see them either. However, those branches are there and if I check that repo out on its own (not as a submodule of the main repo) I and everyone else can see those remote branches.

This is git 1.8.2.1 btw.