# Could not access submodule when pulling recursively with git 2.21

1 messages from 2019-03-13 to 2019-03-13. Participants: Moritz Winter.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/50725

## Moritz Winter, 2019-03-13 08:15

Subject: Could not access submodule when pulling recursively with git 2.21
Message-ID: <CAPrSTy83qh+BtQ=ur-+6p5VXbhMpy0iD2tOAiUP10c5hWwV-tg@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAPrSTy83qh%2BBtQ%3Dur-%2B6p5VXbhMpy0iD2tOAiUP10c5hWwV-tg%40mail.gmail.com

```
Hi,

I've recently upgraded to git from 2.20.1 to 2.21 and now my projects
with submodules show a access error when pulling recursively.

I have a couple of projects on gitlab.com that use two or more
submodules. The .gitmodules file is slightly changed for gitlab.com
compatibility. The paths are relative as described in:

https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/git_submodules.html

Before updating git I could pull the submodules recursively within the
main repository. Now I get a "Could not access submodule 'foo'" error.

Example:

$ git -v
git version 2.20.1

$ git pull --recurse-submodules=true
Fetching submodule 'foo'
Fetching submodule 'bar'
Already up to date.

$ git -v
git version 2.21.0

$ git pull --recurse-submodules=true
Fetching submodule 'foo'
Fetching submodule 'bar'
Could not access submodule 'foo'
Could not access submodule 'bar'

This only happens in projects with two or more submodules. A project
with one submodule does work as expected. Additionally I have a
password protected ssh key if this is relevant.

$ uname -a
Linux box 4.19.28-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Mar 10 08:32:42 UTC
2019 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Is this a regression in git or is there a error on my end/gitlab.com?
My workaround currently is to downgrade to git v 2.20.

I've already filed a bug with gitlab.com:

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/58891

Thanks & best regards

Moritz

```