counsel-git uses the git root directory relative to the default-directory of the buffer (counsel-git > counsel-locate-git-root > counsel--git-root > counsel--dominating-file). However, if the buffer corresponds to a file which resides in a submodule, performing a git ls-files search (via counsel-git) will only show results for the current submodule, but not the parent or sibling submodules. Ideally, there should be a way to adjust the search directory, but there is no keymap for invoking counsel-cd from within the minibuffer, such as there is for counsel-git-grep.

If we could navigate to the top-most directory, we could perform a search this way...or really at any level of the nested git repository. This is what is being requested...the ability to invoke counsel-cd from counsel-git. A workaround would be to open a buffer corresponding to a file in the top-level git repository, however it is a nuisance to do this, and counsel-git-grep does not require this...it allows changing the directory. Thus, for a similar scenario (involving grep instead of find file) using counsel-git-grep it is straight forward (assuming "submodule.recurse=true" is configured for the repository) by just invoking C-x C-d from within the minibuffer and changing the directory up to the top-level directory.

For counsel-git, it could be as easy as it is for counsel-git-grep if counsel-cd were allowed to be invoked. One additional caveat to note is that git ls-files ignores the git config value of "submodule.recurse", apparently purposefully, as indicated here. However, this can be worked around by overriding the value of counsel-git-cmd and explicitly adding the "--recurse-submodules" option to that string.

The following is a test scenario which demonstrates the problem.

git Test Repository Scenario

mkdir ~/git/test-counsel-git-X
cd ~/git/test-counsel-git-X
git init
touch test_X.txt
git add --all
git commit -m "Initial Version"

mkdir ~/git/test-counsel-git-Y
cd ~/git/test-counsel-git-Y
git init
touch test_Y.txt
git add --all
git commit -a -m "Initial Version"

mkdir ~/git/test-counsel-git
cd ~/git/test-counsel-git
git init
touch test_main.txt
git submodule add ../test-counsel-git-X X
git submodule add ../test-counsel-git-Y Y
git add --all
git commit -m "Initial Version"

Test Scenario

• make plain
• C-x C-f ~/git/test-counsel-git/X/test_x.txt
• M-x counsel-git test
  • Only shows "test_X.txt"
• C-x C-f ~/git/test-counsel-git/test_main.txt
• M-x counsel-git test
  • Only shows "test_main.txt" (since by default, git ls-files does not recurse through submodules).
• M-: (setq counsel-git-cmd "git ls-files --recurse-submodules -z --full-name --")
  • Override counsel-git-cmd to add the --recurse-submodules option
• M-x counsel-git test
  • Repeat with "test_main.txt" buffer
  • Now shows "X/test_X.txt, Y/test_Y.txt and test_main.txt", since it recurses through submodules.
• C-x b test_x.txt
  • Switch back to test_x.txt buffer
• M-x counsel-git test
  • Still only shows "test_X.txt" (since search begins at directory X)
  • No way to adjust search directory from this buffer.