remove git submodule but keep files

Question

I have a git submodule that I would like to become part of my main project (since I have a lot of project specific code that will go into the submodule).

So I'd like to remove the git references to the submodule and add the files to my main git repository.

But how ?

Answer 1

The answer from VonC will delete the submodule folder contents unless you rename the physical folder first - as shown in this answer, whose question was noted to be a duplicate by Chad:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/16162228

Answer 2

You must remove the gitlink entry in your index:

mv subfolder subfolder_tmp
git submodule deinit subfolder
git rm --cached subfolder
mv subfolder_tmp subfolder
git add subfolder

Replace subfolder with the name of the folder for your submodule, and make sure to not add any trailing slash.

This is what I detail in "Remove a Git submodule?" and "un-submodule a git submodule".

The --cached option allows you to keep the subfolder content in your disk... except git submodule deinit would already have removed that content anyway. Hence the mv part.

You then can add and commit that subfolder.