Issue with adding common code as git submodule already exists in the index

Question

I m new to git and would appreciate help with adding submodules  I ve received two projects sharing some common code  The shared code was just copied into the two projects  I created a separate git repo for the common code and removed it from the projects with the plan to add it as a git submodule  I used the path option of git submodule add to specify the folder  git submodule add url to repo projectfolder  but then got the error   projectfolder  already exists in the index quot   This is the desired structure of my repository  repo  -- projectfolder      -- folder with common code  It is possible to add the git submodule directly in the repo  or into a new folder there  but not in the project folder  The problem is that it really need to be in the project folder   What can I do about this and what have I misunderstood about the path option of git submodule add

User · Answer

I got it working by doing it the other way around. Starting with an empty repo, adding the submodule in a new folder called "projectfolder/common_code". After that it was possible to add the project code in projectfolder. The details are shown below.

In an empty repo type:

git submodule add url_to_repo projectfolder/common_code

That will create the desired folder structure:

repo
|-- projectfolder
    |-- common_code

It is now possible to add more submodules, and the project code can be added to projectfolder.

I can't yet say why it worked this way around and not the other.

User · Answer

if there exists a folder named x under git control  you want add a same name submodule   you should delete folder x and commit it first   Updated by  ujjwal-singh   Committing is not needed  staging suffices   git add   git rm -r

User · Answer

You need to remove your submodule git repository  projectfolder in this case  first for git path    rm -rf projectfolder  git rm -r projectfolder   and then add submodule  git submodule add  lt git submodule repository gt  projectfolder

User · Answer

Just to clarify in human language what the error is trying to tell you   You cannot create a repository in this folder which already tracked in the main repository   For example  You have a theme folder called AwesomeTheme that s a dedicated repository  you try do dump it directly into your main repository like git submodule add sites themes and you get this  AwesomeTheme  index already exists   You just need to make sure there isn t already a sites themes AwesomeTheme in the main repository s version tracking so the submodule can be created there   So to fix  in your main repository if you have an empty sites theme AwesomeTheme directory then remove it  If you have already made commits with the sites theme AwesomeTheme directory in your main repository you need to purge all history of it with a command like this   git filter-branch --index-filter                  git rm -r --cached --ignore-unmatch sites theme AwesomeTheme      HEAD   Now you can run git submodule add git AwesomeTheme repowhateverurlthing sites themes AwesomeTheme  Since the main repository has never seen anything  a k a index d  in sites themes AwesomeTheme before  it can now create it

User · Answer

This happens if the  git file is missing in the target path  It happend to me after I executed git clean -f -d   I had to delete all target folders showing in the message and then executing git submodule update --remote

User · Answer

Don t know if this is any useful  though I had the same problem when trying to commit my files from within IntelliJ 15  In the end  I opened SourceTree and in there I could simply commit the file  Problem solved  No need to issue any fancy git commands  Just mentioning it in case anyone has the same issue

User · Answer

Go to the repository folder  Delete relevant submodules from  gitmodules  Select show hidden files  Go to  git folder  delete the submodules from module folder and config

User · Answer

I had the same problem and after hours of looking found the answer    The error I was getting was a little different   lt path gt  already exists and is not a valid git repo  and added here for SEO value   The solution is to NOT create the directory that will house the submodule  The directory will be created as part of the git submodule add command    Also  the  argument is expected to be relative to the parent-repo root  not your working directory  so watch out for that    Solution for the example above    It IS okay to have your parent repo already cloned  Make sure the common code directory does not exist  cd Repo git submodule add git   url to repo projectfolder common code   Note the required trailing slash   Sanity restored    I hope this helps someone  as there is very little information to be found elsewhere about this

User · Answer

In your git dir  suppose you have sync all changes    rm -rf  git   rm -rf  gitmodules   Then do   git init git submodule add url to repo projectfolder

User · Answer

I m afraid there s not enough information in your question to be certain about what s going on  since you haven t replied to my follow-up question  but this may be of help in any case   That error means that projectfolder is already staged   already exists in the index     To find out what s going on here  try to list everything in the index under that folder with   git ls-files --stage projectfolder   The first column of that output will tell you what type of object is in the index at projectfolder    These look like Unix filemodes  but have special meanings in git    I suspect that you will see something like   160000 d00cf29f23627fc54eb992dde6a79112677cd86c 0   projectfolder    i e  a line beginning with 160000   in which case the repository in projectfolder has already been added as a  gitlink    If it doesn t appear in the output of git submodule  and you want to re-add it as a submodule  you can do   git rm --cached projectfolder       to unstage it  and then   git submodule add url to repo projectfolder       to add the repository as a submodule   However  it s also possible that you will see many blobs listed  with file modes 100644 and 100755   which would suggest to me that you didn t properly unstage the files in projectfolder before copying the new repository into place   If that s the case  you can do the following to unstage all of those files   git rm -r --cached projectfolder       and then add the submodule with   git submodule add url to repo projectfolder

User · Answer

Removing submodule manually involves number of steps and this worked for me   Assuming you are in the project root directory and sample git module name is  c3-pro-ios-framework   Remove the files associated to the submodule  rm -rf  git modules c3-pro-ios-framework    Remove any references to submodule in config  vim  git config     Remove  gitmodules  rm -rf  gitmodules   Remove it from the cache without the  git   git rm --cached c3-pro-ios-framework   Add submodule  git submodule add https   github com chb c3-pro-ios-framework git

[git] Issue with adding common code as git submodule: "already exists in the index"

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