Question

Currently I am trying to clone this git repo: https://github.com/twilio/OpenVBX into my main repo, as though it was a directory. The issue lies, in it that when I try to commit the main repo with git add ., nothing in the sub dir (submodule) gets committed, and when I try to git add path/to/file it gives me the fatal error: ‘Path “” is in submodule’. It seems git is not tracking the sub directory, nor does it notice that it and its files exist at all.

I looked around and came upon this thread: Unable to track files within Git submodules, however, the fix in it has not seemed to work with me or my limited knowledge of git. I do not have any .gitmodules file in my main, and the .git dir I have is not relevant as far I can tell. Is there a way I can make it so its not a submodule anymore? Is there someway I can delete it, and readd it without its git backbone?

I’m more than lost right now, thanks in advance for your help!

Answer 1

If you want to clone OpenVBX into your repository and don’t care about its prior history, do the following:

rm -rf OpenVBX
git clone https://github.com/twilio/OpenVBX.git
rm -rf OpenVBX/.git
git add OpenVBX
git commit -m "Import OpenVBX version x.y"

The key point is the rm -rf OpenVBX/.git which removes the .git repository information from OpenVBX. The rest of it is adding and committing files as normal.