I'm trying to set up a vanilla new separate repository for the first time with git 2.37.1 on two W10 systems using drive mapping but I can't find any answered questions that fit my case given my novicitry. :-) Sorry the format is messed up, I did 4 spaces in front of code but most code lines ignore that for some reason.

Spent hours looking at other similar questions, but they all seem to say that there are no commits in the remote repository I'm trying to clone, which is not true. There are lots of commits.

I created a git repository on System1 and it works.

 git ls-tree --full-tree --name-only -r HEAD

shows all my files (with lots of commits)

 git show HEAD

shows

 commit 557...27d (HEAD -> master)  
 # and the diff between the latest and previous commit

And

 git branch -a

shows

* master

No branches, no complexity, no nothing

I go to System2, and create my repo directory, cd into it, then

git init  
git remote add origin s:/cap2office # that's my mapped System1 repository)
git pull origin master  

I get: fatal: couldn't find remote ref master

git remote

I get: origin

git branch -a

shows nothing

git ls-remote

shows: From s:/cap2office

I also tried:

git clone s:/cap2office

and it says

Cloning into 'cap2office'...  
warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.  

I know I'm missing some trivial magic command, but can't figure out what it is.

CodePudding user response：

You are not cloning a repository, you are trying to clone the working directory of a git clone.

The git repository is stored in the .git folder inside the working directory.

Try this:

git remote add origin s:/cap2office/.git

CodePudding user response：

On system 2, instead of doing git init then git remote add and git pull, do just this:

git clone s:/cap2office/.git

or if you're in Git Bash, sometimes the colon does not work so you need

git clone s/cap2office/.git

Then you can cd to the folder where it was cloned and do the usual git status, git checkout, change stuff, commit, and push to the remote.