Nested Git repositories

Question

Can I nest Git repositories  I have     project root    project root my project   project root third party git repository used by my project   Does it make sense to git init add the  project root to ease management of everything locally or do I have to manage my project and the 3rd party one separately

User · Accepted Answer

You may be looking for the Git feature called submodules  This feature helps you manage dependent repositories that are nested inside your main repository

User · Answer

Summary      Can I nest git repositories    Yes  However  by default git does not track the  git folder of the nested repository  Git has features designed to manage nested repositories  read on       Does it make sense to git init add the  project root to ease management of everything locally or do I have to manage my project and the 3rd party one separately    It probably doesn t make sense as git has features to manage nested repositories  Git s built in features to manage nested repositories are submodule and subtree    Here is a blog on the topic and here is a SO question that covers the pros and cons of using each

User · Answer

git-subtree will help you work with multiple projects in a single tree and keep separable history for them

User · Answer

Just for completeness   There is another solution  I would recommend  subtree merging   In contrast to submodules  it s easier to maintain   You would create each repository the normal way  While in your main repository  you want to merge the master  or any other branch  of another repository in a directory of your main directory     git remote add -f OtherRepository  path to that repo   git merge -s ours --no-commit OtherRepository master   git read-tree --prefix AnyDirectoryToPutItIn  -u OtherRepository master   git commit -m  Merge OtherRepository project as our subdirectory     Then  in order to pull the other repository into your directory  to update it   use the subtree merge strategy     git pull -s subtree OtherRepository master   I m using this method for years now  it works  -   More about this way including comparing it with sub modules may be found in this git howto doc

User · Answer

I would use one repository per project  That way  the history becomes easier to browse through   I would also check the version of the third party library I m using  into the repository of the project using it

User · Answer

You could add   project root third party git repository used by my project   to    project root  gitignore   that should prevent the nested repo to be included in the parent repo  and you can work with them independently   But   If a user runs git clean -dfx in the parent repo   it will remove the ignored nested repo  Another way is to  symlink the folder and ignore the symlink  If you then run git clean  the symlink is removed  but the  nested  repo will remain intact as it really resides elsewhere

User · Answer

Place your third party libraries in a separate repository and use submodules to associate them with the main project  Here is a walk-through   http   git-scm com book en Git-Tools-Submodules  In deciding how to segment a repo I would usually decide based on how often I would modify them  If it is a third-party library and only changes you are making to it is upgrading to a newer version then you should definitely separate it from the main project

[git] Nested Git repositories?

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