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Bug 1207253

Summary: "git submodule add -f URL PATH" doesn't work despite git suggests it
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Reporter: Jan Pokorný [poki] <jpokorny>
Component: gitAssignee: Petr Stodulka <pstodulk>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: Andrej Dzilský <adzilsky>
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 6.7CC: adzilsky, psklenar, thozza
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: Patch
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Unspecified   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: git-1.7.1-8.el6 Doc Type: No Doc Update
Doc Text:
undefined
 Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2017-03-21 10:00:37 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:    
Bug Blocks: 1254457, 1355829, 1359264    
Attachments:
Description Flags
Patch none

Description Jan Pokorný [poki] 2015-03-30 14:02:50 UTC 
Demo of the issue:

$ pushd /tmp
> /tmp
$ git clone https://github.com/richardfontana/copyleft-next.git
> Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/copyleft-next/.git/
> remote: Counting objects: 2306, done.
> remote: Total 2306 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 2306
> Receiving objects: 100% (2306/2306), 508.83 KiB | 606 KiB/s, done.
> Resolving deltas: 100% (1127/1127), done.
$ cd copyleft-next
$ echo "/example-project" > .gitignore
$ git submodule add -- https://github.com/creativecommons/example-project.git example-project
> Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/copyleft-next/example-project/.git/
> remote: Counting objects: 13, done.
> remote: Total 13 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 13
> Unpacking objects: 100% (13/13), done.
> The following paths are ignored by one of your .gitignore files:
> example-project
> Use -f if you really want to add them.
> fatal: no files added
> Failed to add submodule 'example-project'

(Ok, will use -f as I "really want to add them")

$ git submodule add -f -- https://github.com/creativecommons/example-project.git example-project
> Usage: git submodule [--quiet] add [-b branch] [--reference <repository>] [--] <repository> [<path>]
>    or: git submodule [--quiet] status [--cached] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
>    or: git submodule [--quiet] init [--] [<path>...]
>    or: git submodule [--quiet] update [--init] [-N|--no-fetch] [--rebase] [--reference <repository>] [--merge] [--recursive] [--] [<path>...]
>    or: git submodule [--quiet] summary [--cached|--files] [--summary-limit <n>] [commit] [--] [<path>...]
>    or: git submodule [--quiet] foreach [--recursive] <command>
>    or: git submodule [--quiet] sync [--] [<path>...]

Ouch.  This works nicely with newer versions of git, though.

$ rpm -q git
git-1.7.1-3.el6_4.1.x86_64
Comment 2 Petr Stodulka 2015-03-30 20:55:04 UTC 
Created attachment 1008666 [details]
Patch

Upstream patch. Force option missed in git-submodules.sh
Comment 6 Petr Stodulka 2016-12-07 23:38:38 UTC 
Moved back to assigned because of found bug by Martin Cermak (#1401872). We overlooked that option --ignore-missing for "add" subcommand doesn't exist in git v1.7.1 so import of new submodules were not possible without --force option.

Correct solution without futile clone of the module when it can't be imported
is bigger for implementation (upstream creates more fixes because of this option) - and probably time consuming for correct testing, proposed solution removes problematic check (without this --ignore-missing option, we can't do that reasonably).

So when user doesn't use -f or --force option and file is on a .gitignore list, user will see erro message as above to use -f option, but module will be already downloaded in the repo.

With -f or --force option a modul will be correctly added in that case.
(Hope that my explanation is clear.)
Comment 8 Andrej Dzilský 2016-12-14 16:31:54 UTC 
Current solution works as intented.
Comment 10 errata-xmlrpc 2017-03-21 10:00:37 UTC 
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2017-0640.html