Git submodule fail because of link to unexisting revision

Question

I've got a problem with git submodules pull: I have two reporistories, let's call them repo A and repo B.

Repo B is a submodule of repo A, so I added repo B as a submodule of A with this command line:

git submodule add [email protected]:Aracthor/B.git libvvgl

But when I try to clone my project like this:

git clone [email protected]:Aracthor/A.git

My B project folder is empty and when I try this (solution from this answer):

git clone --recursive [email protected]:Aracthor/A.git

My B folder contains only an empty file .git, that contains itself an only line:

../.git/modules/B/

That is a path to a folder with some git data, but still not my B repository files.

I already tried this too:

git submodule update --init --recursive

And nothing changes.

When I Looked at my Github repositories (Here for A and Here for B included) I've noticed something strange: A repository is linking its submodule to a revision key (32a0a80f17ee3628cb99b886c68e566981d7deff) that doesn't exist on any commit on B repository, and that lead to a 404 when clicked on Github.

So from here, it looks like a Github bug... But I would prefer your solutions rather than accuse this plateform.

Answer 1

That means A has recorded a gitlink (special entry in the index) referencing a SHA1 of the submodule B which was never pushed to GitHub.

When A used B in a local clone, B was at 32a0a80. A was pushed, but B was not. Hence the issue.

Normally, a git submodule update --init would populate B with files from commit 32a0a80, but since that commit was not pushed, that command would fail as well.