I have repo that need external git project but I don't want to use submodules because I want to have all files in archive on github so I thought that I just add whole directory that have git repo to git but it don't add .git directory that's inside.
Is it possible to add that directory to git?
Even if you can find a work around to add the .git directory to your repo, you should not do this. Instead, you should add the files directly to your repo. If you want, you can maintain the change history with a little bit of git-foo. From the folder of the repo where you want to add the external git project, do the following
git checkout master
git remote add external <directory or URL for the external repo>
git pull external master
This will merge the master branch from the external repo into your current repo. You can also checkout any branch from the external repo with something like
git checkout -b external/master external/master
Now you can make changes or merge from the current project. You can continue to use any git commands you wish from here.
.git subdirectory IS the git repo. It stores all the data necessary for git to create history, diffs, etc. Adding this to git doesn't make sense because it is the snake eating its own tail.Two solutions:
mv .git git and then archive the folder..git folder, and archive that. Recently I came to prefer #1, since that allows me to navigate and interact with non-binary files. As a side-bonus, Git / my stores / other groups archiving things for me, can be more efficient with space by identifying 'boilerplate repo' files and strings.
Also with #1, if I later want to turn this dir back into a repo, I can – with full history!
.gitdirectory to your repo is the correct solution. You should add the files you want directly to your repo instead.