github - Git: How to make outer repository and embedded repository work as common/standalone repository?

Question

I have a big project(let's say A repo), and it there one child folder which is come from B repo. I would meet warning like below when I commit from A repo

warning: adding embedded git repository: extractor/annotator-server
hint: You've added another git repository inside your current repository.
hint: Clones of the outer repository will not contain the contents of
hint: the embedded repository and will not know how to obtain it.
hint: If you meant to add a submodule, use:
hint:
hint:   git submodule add <url> extractor/annotator-server
hint:
hint: If you added this path by mistake, you can remove it from the
hint: index with:
hint:
hint:   git rm --cached extractor/annotator-server
hint:
hint: See "git help submodule" for more information.

I have seen git-submodule and git-subtree:

Maintaining Git repo inside another git repo

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/git/alternatives-to-git-submodule-git-subtree

But I don't like them , because they need extra config.

---

What I want is , for example:

structure like:

A/
--- a.py

--- B/
--- B/b.py

When I change B/b.py .

1. If I am on path A/ , git add can detect B/b.py changed, git push only commit that to A repo.

   git add .   (would add changes under A/  )
   git push   (would push changes under A/  )
   git pull   (would pull changes under A/  )
   git clone XXX:A  (would clone all files under A/ ,    A/B/ is just looks like plain folder with all files, not a repo )
   

2. If I am on path A/B/ , git add only add B/b.py changes to B repo, and git push only commit that to B repo.

   git add .   (would add changes under B/ , but not add changes to A repo)
   git push   (would push changes under B/ , but not push changes to A repo)
   git pull   (would clone changes under B/ ,  )
   git clone XXX:B  (would clone all files under B/  )
   

3. Once I want to snyc A and B in another machine, just do

   git clone A
   rm -rf A/B/
   git clone B ./B
   git add . && git commit 'sync with B'
   

In another word, A and B act as a standalone repo.

But the truth is , A repo treat B repo as submodule:

A repo https://github.com/eromoe/test

B repo https://github.com/eromoe/test2

---

How do I force A repo track all files under A/ , and B repo track all files under A/B/ ? I want A and B act as a self-contain repo , without any other config.

Answer 1

You can use below commands to add files from test2 repo to test repo as below:

# In local test repo
rm -rf test2
git clone https://github.com/eromoe/test2
git add test2/
git commit -am 'add files from test2 repo to test repo'
git push

Note:

You should use git add test2/ (with slash, not git add test2).

git add test2/ will treat test2 folder and it's files as ordinary folder and file for test repo (create mode 100644).

git add test2 will treat test2 folder as a submodule for test repo (create mode 160000).