git-subtree pull complications

Question

We have been trying to get git-subtree working on a project (with git version 1.7.9.4) and have run into a bit of a complication. Someone else previous added the subtree wit

Answer 1

This also happens, if the current clone is a partial clone (e.g., when using --depth=1). This is the default at GitHub Actions V2.

In the case of GitHub actions, this can be configured when using fetch-depth: 0 at the checkout step:

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout source
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          ref: master
          fetch-depth: 0

Answer 2

This could happen when the main repository and the subtree repository has different set of commits.

In my case I had updated the subtree from the local repository(using git subtree pull --squash -P foo local/foo.git master) and the local repository changes were never pushed to origin.

When I tried git pull --squash -s subtree git@example.com:foo.git master after this, I started getting the error.

Just pushing the subtree repository solved the error.

Answer 3

I had the same problem, and in my case it seems to be due to the initial subtree commit being merge-squashed into the master branch.

Looking through the subtree source I found this: https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/contrib/subtree/git-subtree.sh#L224

It looks like subtree greps your git log for git-subtree-dir: foo but doesn't find a suitable commit. Try git log --grep="git-subtree-dir: foo/*\$", and if there's something weird with that commit, such as it being a merge commit, that could be the issue.

Just pulling without squashing worked for me, apart from the annoying merge conflicts. I did that in a temporary branch which I then git merge --squashed into another branch to avoid a messier history. It could've been rebased instead too of course.

Answer 4

I've been experiencing the same error Can't squash-merge: 'foo' was never added. with sourcetree 1.7.0 whenever I do a pull on a subtree. However, I believe my case is different because I'm using subdirectories.

Sourcetree does something as follows:
git -c diff.mnemonicprefix=false -c core.quotepath=false subtree pull -P dir1\subdir1 --squash remote-repo master

And obviously, if we were to try it again in Git Bash (Git version 2.6.1.windows.1), it would be:
git subtree pull -P "dir1\subdir1" --squash remote-repo master

However that failed. The following also failed although the command syntax is fine:
git subtree pull -P dir1/subdir1 --squash remote-repo master

The solution I found to make it work is to use Git Bash with the following command:
git subtree pull -P "dir1/subdir" --squash remote-repo master

I guess that there is still some work to be done for Git's command-line processing engine.