Stefan Beller [off-list ref] writes:
Currently the force flag in `git submodule add` takes care of possibly
ignored files or when a name collision occurs.
However there is another situation where submodule add comes in handy:
When you already have a gitlink recorded, but no configuration was
done (i.e. no .gitmodules file nor any entry in .git/config) and you
want to generate these config entries. For this situation allow
`git submodule add` to proceed if there is already a submodule at the
given path in the index.
Signed-off-by: Stefan Beller <redacted>
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Yup, the goal makes perfect sense.
I vaguely recall discussing this exact issue of "git submodule add"
that refuses to add a path that already is a gitlink (via "git add"
that has previously been run) elsewhere on this list some time ago.