Git will not init/sync/update new submodules

Question

Here\'s part of the contents of my .gitmodules file:

[submodule \"src/static_management\"]
        path = src/static_management
        url = gi         


        

Answer 1

When I saw this today, a developer had moved part of the tree into a new sub-directory and it looks as though his git client did not record the updated Subproject rules in the tree, instead they were just nuked, leaving .gitmodules referring both to stale locations and to subprojects which no longer existed in the current tree.

Adding the submodules back in, and comparing the commit shas of the submodule to those found in git show $breaking_commit_sha (search for lines matching regexp ^-Subproject) to adjust as needed fixed things.