diff --git a/Documentation/config/submodule.txt b/Documentation/config/submodule.txt
index b33177151c..5962f41ead 100644
--- a/Documentation/config/submodule.txt
+++ b/Documentation/config/submodule.txt
@@ -59,8 +59,9 @@ submodule.active::
 
 submodule.recurse::
 	Specifies if commands recurse into submodules by default. This
-	applies to all commands that have a `--recurse-submodules` option,
-	except `clone`.
+	applies to all commands that have a `--recurse-submodules` option
+	(`checkout`, `fetch`, `grep`, `pull`, `push`, `read-tree`, `reset`,
+	`restore` and `switch`) except `clone` and `ls-files`.
 	Defaults to false.
 
 submodule.fetchJobs::
diff --git a/Documentation/gitsubmodules.txt b/Documentation/gitsubmodules.txt
index c476f891b5..f9f4e65c9e 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitsubmodules.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitsubmodules.txt
@@ -271,7 +271,8 @@ will not be checked out by default; You can instruct 'clone' to recurse
 into submodules. The 'init' and 'update' subcommands of 'git submodule'
 will maintain submodules checked out and at an appropriate revision in
 your working tree. Alternatively you can set 'submodule.recurse' to have
-'checkout' recursing into submodules.
+'checkout' recursing into submodules (note that 'submodule.recurse' also
+affects other git commands, see linkgit:git-config[1] for a complete list).
 
 
 SEE ALSO