Git treat nested git repos as regular file/folders

Question

I have a top level git repo organized like so:

• .git/
• repoA/
  • .git/
  • file
  • file2
  • folder/
  • ...

Answer 1

You can look into git subtree.

For that, if you currently have submodules, you can follow "Convert a git repository from submodules to subtrees":

cat .gitmodules |while read i
do
  if [[ $i == \[submodule* ]]; then
    mpath=$(echo $i | cut -d\" -f2)
    read i; read i;
    murl=$(echo $i|cut -d\  -f3)
    mcommit=`eval "git submodule status ${mpath} |cut -d\  -f2"`
    mname=$(basename $mpath)
    echo -e "$name\t$mpath\t$murl\t$mcommit"
    git submodule deinit $mpath
    git rm -r --cached $mpath
    rm -rf $mpath
    git remote add $mname $murl
    git fetch $mname
    git branch _$mname $mcommit
    git read-tree --prefix=$mpath/ -u _$mname
fi
done
git rm .gitmodules

(test it on a copy of your repo first)

See also "When to use git subtree?", which differs from ingydotnet/git-subrepo.