Changled submodule cannot be "git added"

And another interesting behaviour of git with submodules:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- % git status # On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 8 commits. # # Changed but not updated: # (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed) # (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory) # (commit or discard the untracked or modified content in submodules) # # modified: modules/tftpd_hpa (modified content) # # Untracked files: # (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed) # # modules/ethz_systems_private/ no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a") % git add modules/tftpd_hpa # On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 8 commits. # # Changed but not updated: # (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed) # (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory) # (commit or discard the untracked or modified content in submodules) # # modified: modules/tftpd_hpa (modified content) # # Untracked files: # (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed) # # modules/ethz_systems_private/ no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a") --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Why can modules/tftpd_hpa not be added?
- Why does git checkout not remove modules/ethz_systems_private/,
  when switching from the master to the private branch?
  (the module is only registered in the private branch)

Nico

Nico -telmich- Schottelius [Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 09:25:14AM +0200]:

Ok, found out that I changed stuff within modules/tftpd_hpa, instead of merging from the source.

Imho the git status output is a bit misleading, as I assume that I can git add stuff that's modified.

Perhaps git add should print a warning / error if I try to add the changed submodule and not silently ignore it.

Regarding the other problem

I'm still not sure what's the reason for that.

Nico

Am 15.06.2010 09:37, schrieb Nico -telmich- Schottelius:

To make such surprises visible is the intent of showing "(modified content)" here.

Maybe you just overlooked this line in the output of "git status": "(commit or discard the untracked or modified content in submodules)"

Because there might be stuff in there which is not tracked but you might hate loosing by switching a branch.