How to "resolve fatal: Not a git repository"?

Question

I was trying to remove one sub-module from the project

Tried rm -rf .git/modules/submodulePath

After that I am having the issue

fatal: Not a git repository

Answer 1

These two files contains absolute submodule path:

{submodule}/.git .git/modules/{submodule}/config 

So, if you moved the repo, the absolute path in these two files are not valid, and cause the 'not a git repository' error. Just fix these files manually.

Update:

1.) Delete the relevant section from the .gitmodules file. You can use below command:

git config -f .gitmodules --remove-section "submodule.submodule_name" 

2.) Stage the .gitmodules changes

git add .gitmodules 

3.) Delete the relevant section from .git/config. You can use below command:

git submodule deinit -f "submodule_name" 

4.) Remove the gitlink (no trailing slash):

git rm --cached path_to_submodule 

5.) Cleanup the .git/modules:

rm -rf .git/modules/path_to_submodule 

6.) Commit:

git commit -m "Removed submodule <name>" 

7.) Delete the now untracked submodule files

rm -rf path_to_submodule 

Answer 2

I ran into this and didn't have a .git/modules directory in my main repository. I have one submodule 'build', so just removed any references and reinitialized it:

rm -rf .git/modules rm -rf build git submodule init git submodule update