How do I work with a git repository within another repository

Question

I have a Git media repository where I m keeping all of my JavaScript and CSS master files and scripts that I ll use on various projects    If I create a new project that s in its own Git repository  how do I use JavaScript files from my media repository in my new project in a way that makes it so I don t have to update both copies of the script when I make changes

User · Answer

Consider using subtree instead of submodules  it will make your repo users life much easier  You may find more detailed guide in Pro Git book

User · Answer

If I understand your problem well you want the following things    Have your media files stored in one single git repository  which is used by many projects If you modify a media file in any of the projects in your local machine  it should immediately appear in every other project  so you don t want to commit push pull all the time    Unfortunately there is no ultimate solution for what you want  but there are some things by which you can make your life easier   First you should decide one important thing  do you want to store for every version in your project repository a reference to the version of the media files  So for example if you have a project called example com  do you need know which style css it used 2 weeks ago  or the latest is always  or mostly  the best   If you don t need to know that  the solution is easy    create a repository for the media files and one for each project create a symbolic link in your projects which point to the locally cloned media repository  You can either create a relative symbolic link  e g     media  and assume that everybody will checkout the project so that the media directory is in the same place  or write the name of the symbolic link into  gitignore  and everybody can decide where he she puts the media files    In most of the cases  however  you want to know this versioning information  In this case you have two choices    Store every project in one big repository  The advantage of this solution is that you will have only 1 copy of the media repository  The big disadvantage is that it is much harder to switch between project versions  if you checkout to a different version you will always modify ALL projects  Use submodules  as explained in answer 1   This way you will store the media files in one repository  and the projects will contain only a reference to a specific media repo version  But this way you will normally have many local copies of the media repository  and you cannot easily modify a media file in all projects    If I were you I would probably choose the first or third solution  symbolic links or submodules   If you choose to use submodules you can still do a lot of things to make your life easier    Before committing you can rename the submodule directory and put a symlink to a common media directory  When you re ready to commit  you can remove the symlink and remove the submodule back  and then commit  You can add one of your copy of the media repository as a remote repository to all of your projects    You can add local directories as a remote this way   cd  my project2 media git remote add project1  my project1 media   If you modify a file in  my project1 media  you can commit it and pull it from  my project2 media without pushing it to a remote server   cd  my project1 media git commit -a -m  message  cd  my project2 media git pull project1 master   You are free to remove these commits later  with git reset  because you haven t shared them with other users

User · Answer

I had issues with subtrees and submodules that the other answers suggest    mainly because I am using SourceTree and it seems fairly buggy   Instead  I ended up using SymLinks and that seems to work well so I am posting it here as a possible alternative   There is a complete guide here  http   www howtogeek com howto 16226 complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux   But basically you just need to mklink the two paths in an elevated command prompt  Make sure you use the  J hard link prefix  Something along these lines  mklink  J C  projects MainProject plugins C  projects SomePlugin  You can also use relative folder paths and put it in a bat to be executed by each person when they first check out your project   Example  mklink  J   Assets TaqtileTools    TaqtileHoloTools  Once the folder has been linked you may need to ignore the folder within your main repository that is referencing it  Otherwise you are good to go   Note I ve deleted my duplicate answer from another post as that post was marked as a duplicate question to this one

User · Answer

The key is git submodules      Start reading the Submodules chapter of the Git Community Book or of the Users Manual  Say you have repository PROJECT1  PROJECT2  and MEDIA     cd  path to PROJECT1 git submodule add ssh   path to repo MEDIA git commit -m  Added Media submodule    Repeat on the other repo     Now  the cool thing is  that any time you commit changes to MEDIA  you can do this   cd  path to PROJECT2 MEDIA git pull cd    git add MEDIA git commit -m  Upgraded media to version XYZ    This just recorded the fact that the MEDIA submodule WITHIN PROJECT2 is now at version XYZ   It gives you 100  control over what version of MEDIA each project uses   git submodules are great  but you need to experiment and learn about them       With great power comes the great chance to get bitten in the rump

[git] How do I work with a git repository within another repository?

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