borg-assimilate fails with "fatal: Not a git repository..."

[NicolasPetton]

My git repository must be in a bad state, but whenever I try to borg-assimilate a drone, I got an error message like:

fatal: Not a git repository: ../../.git/modules/company-lua

My emacs.d is at https://github.com/nicolaspetton/emacs.d

[tarsius]

I have gotten errors like this before and it is one of the sharper edges of the modules functionality. Usually it was the result of me doing something very wrong, but git doesn't really help you figure out what that is because it bails out very early on. If I remember correctly it always gives an error like the above, but in some cases that isn't really an appropriate error.

Anyway, you have to get things into a "less corrupted state" before you can investigate what is actually wrong. Check if ~/.emacs.d/.git/modules/company-lua exists and if it is a valid gitdir. If not, then copy one of the neighboring gitdirs in its place. You might also have to adjust core.worktree. Also make sure lib/company-lua exists. If not, then create an empty directory.

[NicolasPetton]

Jonas Bernoulli <notifications@github.com> writes: I have deleted/cloned my repo, so I won't be able investigate more unless I face the same issue again.

Check if `~/.emacs.d/.git/modules/company-lua` exists and is a valid gitdir. If not then copy one of the neighboring gitdirs in its place. Now you should at least be able to investigate.

The directory existed, and looked like a gitdir. The weird thing was that I got this issue for any new package I tried to assimilate, not just company-lua.

[NicolasPetton]

@tarsius I got the same error again. It turns out the .git/modules/PACKAGE directory contains a .git file with the following:

gitdir: ../../.git/modules/PACKAGE

I have no clue why. After removing this file, it all works fine.

[tarsius]

Do you use a very old git? I have some vague memory of a bug that caused the creation of such a file.

[NicolasPetton]

git version 2.7.5

[tarsius]

Turns out I was thinking of a different bogus file, see magit/magit@06a7f52.

[tarsius]

Still it might be worth trying to reproduce this with a more recent version. (Newer versions have some nice new features also.)

[tarsius]

Please reopen if you run into this again.