Repro: 1. git clone --recursive a repository with submodules. 2. cd checkout/submoduleA 3. git svn init svn://host/repo Expected: Works as usual Actual: /path/to/checkout/submoduleA/.git/refs: Not a directory init: command returned error: 1 Why: submoduleA/.git is a file, not a directory. $ cat /path/to/checkout/submoduleA/.git gitdir: ../.git/modules/submoduleA $ git --version git version 1.8.4 Thanks, M-A -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html