Git submodule add: “a git directory is found locally” issue

245
votes

I'm actually trying to learn how to use git, including the git submodule subcommands. I already set up a server on which I can host, push and pull git repositories by using SSH. I created a main git repository "Travail" on this server in which I would like to put all my projects as submodules.

In my Travail repository, I already added a project of mine as a submodule at tools/libft: I'm able to develop this submodule, to push and to pull it.

But when I try to add another submodule (named fdf, from fdf.git on my server), I get the following issue :

git submodule add ssh://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:XXXXX/opt/git/fdf.git projets/fdf

A git directory for 'projets/fdf' is found locally with remote(s): origin ssh://[email protected]:XXXXX/opt/git/fdf.git If you want to reuse this local git directory instead of cloning again from ssh://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:XXXXX/opt/git/fdf.git use the '--force' option. If the local git directory is not the correct repo or you are unsure what this means choose another name with the '--name' option.

There is actually no subdirectory in projets/

I read on another thread that I should use git submodule sync or edit the .gitmodules file in which the URL to my submodule's origin repository could have changed.

But my .gitmodules file only contains the information about my first submodule (tools/libft), not about projets/fdf :

[submodule "tools/libft"]
    path = tools/libft
    url = ssh://[email protected]:XXXXX/opt/git/libft.git

As a French student I could have missed something in the English documentation I have, but I searched and I really don't understand why I get this issue.

I would be glad if I would get a solution but just an explanation would be helpful too.

6
gitgit-submodules
A small correction: it's 'repository', not 'depository'. Not really an answer, but if the projects are independent of each other it would be better for each project to have its own repo instead of submodules. - jcm
Thank you, I corrected. I know but I would like to gather all my work in the same repo but as separate projects. It is a choice to keep my whole work updated when I go from home to my school and vice versa (and to learn how to use these tools, I'm curious ;) ) - vmonteco
Well, curiosity is always a good reason! :) That is strange. Are you sure you haven't added the submodule before? - jcm
Not in Travail/, and I have no problème to clone fdf.git in ~/ . In Travail/ I find no traces of fdf. just libft :/ - vmonteco
Oh wait, I looked in /Travail/.git/modules/projets/ and I found a fdf directory. This seems to not be in the working tree but in older commits. Could it generate the issue? - vmonteco

6 Answers

583
votes

I came to this SO post trying to add a submodule with the same path as a submodule that I recently deleted.

This is what ultimately worked for me (this article helped out a lot):

If you haven't already run
git rm --cached path_to_submodule (no trailing slash) as well as
rm -rf path_to_submodule

Then:

  1. Delete the relevant lines from the .gitmodules file. e.g. delete these:
[submodule "path_to_submodule"]
        path = path_to_submodule
        url = https://github.com/path_to_submodule
  1. Delete the relevant section from .git/config. e.g. delete these:
[submodule "path_to_submodule"]
        url = https://github.com/path_to_submodule
  1. rm -rf .git/modules/path_to_submodule

Then, you can finally:

git submodule add https://github.com/path_to_submodule

64
votes

i tried jbmilgrom's solution, specifically i tried git rm --cache and that didn't work for me either as the directory/submodule wasn't there. What worked for me was:

  1. rm -rf .git/modules/blah
  2. git submodule add git://path.to.new

I did this after trying --force within the git submodule commands and rm all the other directories, pushes to master etc... the directory didn't exist and there was no reason for the cache. Turns out in .git/modules that is where this error was lying.

16
votes

You may have deleted your 'projets/fdf' from disk, but your Git repository still has it. Use git rm -rf projets/fdf to remove it from Git, then commit the changes. After that you'll be able to add this folder as a submodule.

14
votes

If you already deleted the submodule directory, like I did, follow the rest of jbmilgrom's instructions. The key is rm -rf .git/modules/path_to_submodule but go ahead and backup your whole parent repo directory first.

If you only had one submodule just delete .gitmodules

7
votes

These two commands works for me.

rm path/to/submodule -rf
rm .git/modules/path/to/module -rf
0
votes

You can do this while cloning your submodule:

git submodule add --name submodule_name submodule path

This will add your submodule into your project and will be added as a structure under .gitmodules file.

And then if you don't want the older one you can remove it from .gitmodules structure and delete the submodule folder from the project.