git clean is not removing a submodule added to a branch when switching branches

Question

How do I get rid of submodules when switching branches. I do not understand why git clean says it removed the submodule but does not. Is this a bug? Below are cut&paste steps to reproduce.

git --version git version 1.7.8.4  git init submod cd submod echo "This is a submodule" > README.txt git add . git commit -m "Initial commit" cd .. git init prog cd prog echo "This is a program" > README.txt git add . git commit -a -m "Initial commit" git checkout -b topic1 git submodule add ../submod git commit -m "Added submodule"  git checkout master #warning: unable to rmdir submod: Directory not empty #Switched to branch 'master'  git status # On branch master # Untracked files: #   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed) # #       submod/ #nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)  git clean -fd #Removing submod/  git status # On branch master # Untracked files: #   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed) # #       submod/ #nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track) 

Answer 1

This isn't a bug, it's documented behaviour. From man git-clean:

If an untracked directory is managed by a different git repository, it is not removed by default.

The submod directory is a different git repository; if you want to remove it, Use -f option twice if you really want to remove such a directory.

git clean -f -f -d submod does remove submod. See my steps below (almost identical; different git version and hard-coded submodule path because otherwise git spits the dummy).

---

Steps

 $ git --version git version 1.7.5.4 # Note, different git-version.  

Make the two repositories

 git init submod cd submod echo "This is a submodule" > README.txt git add . git commit -m "Initial commit" cd .. git init prog cd prog echo "This is a program" > README.txt git add . git commit -a -m "Initial commit" 

Add submod as a git submodule in topic1 branch.

 git checkout -b topic1 git submodule add /Users/simont/sandbox/SOTESTING/Subdir-testing/submod git commit -m "Added submodule" 

Now for the interesting section.

 $ git checkout master warning: unable to rmdir submod: Directory not empty Switched to branch 'master'  git status # On branch master # Untracked files: #   (use "git add ..." to include in what will be committed) # #       submod/ #nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track) 

Attempt to git-clean, then actually git-clean.

 git clean -fd #Removing submod/  git status # On branch master # Untracked files: #   (use "git add ..." to include in what will be committed) # #       submod/ #nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)  $ # As we can see, we haven't actually removed anything yet.  $ ls README.txt  submod  $ git clean -f -f -d submod Removing submod/  $ ls README.txt  $ git status # On branch master nothing to commit (working directory clean)