How to make git submodule files available in parent repo?

Question

I have this directory structure:

--/home/user/main_git_project
  --main_files.txt
  --sub_git_project
      --sub_files.txt

I added the submodule with git submodule add <url> sub_git_project.

This created the /home/user/main_git_project/.gitmodules file successfully.

However, now when I git push the main git project and view the files at github the sub_git_project directory appears to be some type of symlink or placeholder (it is empty). There is no way to view or list the files in sub_git_project.

How can I add the sub_git_project to the main_git_project and have the sub_files be available?

Answer 1

I had a similar problem. Consider the following directory structure:

/home/<username>/<main-git-project>
  .gitignore
  .gitmodules
  ...<main-git-project> files
  <submodule-git-project>
    .gitignore
    ...<submodule-git-project> files

What I first attempted was to add the <submodule-git-project> submodule to my <main-git-project>, yielding the following .gitmodules file:

[submodule "<submodule-git-project>"]
  path = <submodule-git-project>
  url = ./<submodule-git-project>

I committed the changes in the <main-git-project> and pushed them to the remote GitHub repository. What happened is that the <submodule-git-project> folder was not clickable, thus not able to view any of its contents.

What I did to resolve the issue was to create a separate GitHub repository for the <submodule-git-project>, add the remote to the submodule, push the submodule code into this new repository, and edit the <main-git-project>'s .gitmodules file so the url now points to the remote submodule repository.

[submodule "<submodule-git-project>"]
    path = <submodule-git-project>
    url = https://github.com/<github-username>/<submodule-git-project>.git

Now the <main-git-project>'s GitHub repository has a hyperlink-styled <submodule-git-project>'s folder that redirects you to the submodule's GitHub repository.

This is a sample project I have in my account so you can better appreciate what I am talking about.