adding a git submodule that tracks master

Question

I'm using git 1.8.4 and trying to add a submodule that tracks master of another repository. I tried adding it as follows:

git submodule add -b master /path/to/myrepo.git

And I get the following error when I try to add it

Cloning into 'myrepo.git'...
warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.
done.
fatal: Cannot update paths and switch to branch 'master' at the same time.
Did you intend to checkout 'origin/master' which can not be resolved as commit?
Unable to checkout submodule 'myrepo'

I'm not sure what this means...can someone explain?

Answer 1

The fact that the submodule doesn't appear to have a branch (ie: "cd submodule ; git branch -avvv" doesn't return anything, means the submodule configuration in the parent repo isn't properly initialized and updated.

I commented:

One way to move forward would be to start from a fresh clone of the parent repo (without any reference to your submodule), and repeat the steps:

git submodule add -b master /path/to/myrepo.git ; 
git submodule update --remote --init. –