Unable to turn off git submodule sync with env vars from documentation

[KonstantinSimeonov]

Duplicate of #1053, but creating a new issue, since I cannot post there. I've tried disabling git submodules for a couple of reasons using the environment variable BUILDKITE_GIT_SUBMODULES=false in the env file which is sourced by the Elastic CI AWS Stack. I have verified that the variable is indeed exported and available during the clone step by using this debug pipeline config:

steps:
  - label: ":pipeline:"
    command: env | grep SUBMODULE
    plugins:
      - "uber-workflow/run-without-clone"

Is it possible to disable the submodule operations during checkout with an env var, or I'll need to fork the AWS Stack and hack around this in the systemd definition or in the agent hooks?

[wolfeidau]

Hey @KonstantinSimeonov we are interested in the error, or commands related to git submodules that are failing. So we can better understand the problem.

It would be great if you could email through an example build illustrating the issue to support@buildkite.com we can keep an eye out for that email and follow up as required.