diff -r 681267a5f491 -r e174353e8cda mercurial/localrepo.py
--- a/mercurial/localrepo.py	Thu Oct 20 17:05:13 2011 -0400
+++ b/mercurial/localrepo.py	Fri Oct 21 00:33:08 2011 +0200
@@ -1062,11 +1062,12 @@
                     '.hgsubstate' not in changes[0] + changes[1] + changes[2]):
                     changes[2].insert(0, '.hgsubstate')
 
-            if subs and not self.ui.configbool('ui', 'commitsubrepos', True):
+            if subs and not self.ui.configbool('ui', 'commitsubrepos', False):
                 changedsubs = [s for s in subs if wctx.sub(s).dirty(True)]
                 if changedsubs:
                     raise util.Abort(_("uncommitted changes in subrepo %s")
-                                     % changedsubs[0])
+                                     % changedsubs[0],
+                                     hint=_("use --subrepos for recursive commit"))
 
             # make sure all explicit patterns are matched
             if not force and match.files():