How can I do the reverse of git submodule absorbgitdirs? I.e. move a submodule's .git information out of superproject/.git/modules/<module> and back to the superproject/path/to/<module>/.git directory?
I still want <module> to be a submodule of superproject, I just don't want <module>'s .git directory info in superproject's .git/modules directory.
Note that this would make superproject/path/to/<module>/ a nested Git repo, whose SHA1 would still be recorded by the parent project.
To keep the exact same state, you can copy superproject/.git/modules/<module> and rename to superproject/path/to/<module>, and rename <module>/<module> to <module>/.git.
Then you can use the git submodule deinit to remove the submodule:
mv asubmodule asubmodule_tmp
git submodule deinit -f -- a/submodule
rm -rf .git/modules/a/submodule
# if you want to leave it in your working tree
git rm --cached asubmodule
mv asubmodule_tmp asubmodule
I still want to be a submodule of superprojec
Then its .git folder would be in superproject/.git/modules/<module>
submodule absorbgitdirs does not leave any choice:
If a git directory of a submodule is inside the submodule, move the git directory of the submodule into its superprojects
$GIT_DIR/modulespath and then connect the git directory and its working directory by setting thecore.worktreeand adding a.gitfile pointing to the git directory embedded in the superprojects git directory.
I don't see in git config any configuration that might move $GIT_DI R/modules.
absorbgitdirs was introduced in commit f6f8586 for Git 2.12 (Q4 2016)
Its tests shows it expects to use GIT_DIR/modules.
Older Git (before Git 1.7.8, Oct. 2011) had a .git directly inside the submodule folder.
As noted by Jeremiah Rose in the comments:
Another use case is: if you are using a Docker container to use
gitcommands inside a submodule, where the container can't see the superproject and errors out. :(