How to push changes to Git repository from uninitialized directory

Question

I have a local copy of all files from some Git repository in a uninitialized directory, i.e. not tracked by Git (without .git in it) and I've introduced some changes to it. How do I push those changes to the remote Git repository?

These actions can describe what I mean:

1. git clone … ./ - repository cloned
2. rm -Rf ./.git - repository no longer initialized
3. vi ./somefile - some changes introduced

In a more practical aspect:

I have a cloned directory of some library created by bower dependency management tool. I've introduced some changes to this library and now I want to push those changes to the master.

I'm looking for a smart way to re-initialize this directory with Git and to push changes as a single commit to the remote repository.

Answer 1

I'm looking for a smart way to re-initialize this directory with Git and to push changes as a single commit to the remote repository.

Easy: initialize it somewhere else:

cd /path/to/somewhere/else
git clone /url/to/bower
cd bower

Then reference your old folder (where you did some changes) as the git working tree while you are in the new cloned repo:

git --work-tree=/path/to/old/folder add .
git commit -m "changes'
git push

See the --work-tree option of the git command.

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In theory, you could do the git clone directly in your old folder with git clone -n:

cd /path/to/your/old/folder
git clone -n /url/of/bower .

(It might complain the folder isn't an empty one, in which case do the git clone -n outside, and move the .git folder in your old folder)

But I prefer keeping the old folder intact, and doing git-related operations in a separate clone.