Scenario

You have a Git repository at /home/interview/repo where you need to include another repository as a dependency in your project.

Task

Add a Git submodule in the vendor/utils directory pointing to the external utils library at file:///tmp/remote-repo/utils-lib.git, commit the submodule configuration, and ensure the submodule is properly initialized with the .gitmodules file created and the submodule directory containing the external repository files.

Example

# Before (no submodule)

.git/  README.md

cat: .gitmodules: No such file or directory

# After (submodule added)

.git/  .gitmodules  README.md  vendor/

.gitmodules file now exists with submodule configuration

Submodule directory contains: helper.js  README.md

Step 1: Navigate to the repository
Move into the project directory where the submodule will be added.

cd /home/interview/repo

Step 2: Add the submodule
Add the external repository URL to the specified path (vendor/utils). This command automatically clones the files and creates the .gitmodules configuration.

git submodule add file:///tmp/remote-repo/utils-lib.git vendor/utils

Step 3: Verify the staged changes
Check git status to confirm that both the .gitmodules file and the new vendor/utils directory are staged for commit.

git status

Step 4: Commit the submodule
Finalize the addition by committing the configuration and the directory pointer.

git commit -m "Added utils library submodule"