Re: Bug Report: git add

From: Ramkumar Ramachandra <artagnon@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 6, 2011, 05:52 UTC
Message-ID: <20110406055200.GA12547@kytes>
In-Reply-To: <4D9BA35E.6040204@dcook.org>

Hi Darren,

Darren Cook writes:

> (Apologies if there is a proper place to report bugs; but I could not
> find one.)

There is no bugtracker, so this is the right place to report it. Thanks for reporting.

Show 9 quoted lines

> PROBLEM: "git add" adds sub-directories without checking to see if there
> is already a git repository already there.
> 
> WHY BAD: This causes files to be in two repositories (leading to a mess
> if you don't notice for a while...)
> 
> ONE SOLUTION: When adding files from a directory (except root of the
> repository, of course) look for a .git subdirectory, and complain if
> found. Allow --force to override this.

This is a good suggestion. It already has a way to handle gitlinks (for submodules), so this seems like a very reasonable feature.

> MORE SOPHISTICATED:
>  1. Offer to merge in all that history, followed by removing that old
> .git subdirectory.

Hm, I don't like this one -- there are too many ways to "merge" the history, and I can't see a sane default (or even a sane subset of defaults).

>  2. Look inside the .git subdirectory to see if the file being added is
> actually under control there. If not, no need to complain.

I don't like this one either. Tangling up two Git repositories like this is not a good idea -- the user should use submodules or similar.

Next steps: Me (or someone else who has the time) will post a patch fixing this shortly.

-- Ram