Question

What happens to an existing git repository when you issue git init again?

I created a repository with git init. Created a file, add, commit. Check the status (nothing to commit). Then created another file, check the status and I can see it’s untracked as expected.

Then, say by mistake, I run git init again and I get Reinitialise existing Git repository message.

Tried git status, but it shows the same. So what really happens?

Can reinitialising an existing git repository this way be harmful or helpful? Why can we git init inside an existing repository?

Answer 1

From the git docs:

Running git init in an existing repository is safe. It will not overwrite things that are already there. The primary reason for rerunning git init is to pick up newly added templates.