Create PR is failing when using submodules (but only changes in the root repo)

Subject of the issue

Hi, we are using submodules and this action. We are only doing changes to the “root” repo and not any submodule. When its time to create the PR it fails:

# ... everything works
/usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --no-tags --progress --no-recurse-submodules --unshallow --force origin auto-updater/patch:refs/remotes/origin/auto-updater/patch
# ^ works
/usr/bin/git checkout --progress auto-updater/patch --
  error: The following untracked working tree files would be overwritten by checkout:
  	my-submodule/file1.txt
  	my-submodule/file2.txt

This is probably because of the --no-recurse-submodules setting.

Steps to reproduce

workflow

- uses: actions/checkout@v3
  with:
    submodules: true
    token: ${{ secrets.MY_TOKEN }}

- run: date > test.txt

- name: Create pull request
  uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v4
  with:
    ...

Any help is appreciated!

[peter-evans]

Ok, understood. I will look at finding a way to fix this when I have some time.

In the meantime, there is a potential workaround. This is how it works:

1. Separate the workflow into two jobs, the second job depending on the first using the needs: keyword
2. In the first job, checkout the submodules and create the repository changes.
3. At the end of the first job, use upload-artifact to store the changes.
4. In the second job, run checkout only for the root repo, without the submodules.
5. Use download-artifact to copy the changes created in the first job over the local repo.
6. Execute create-pull-request

[peter-evans]

I’ve made the test repository I was using public. You can have a look at the tests and runs here: https://github.com/peter-evans/cpr-submodules/blob/main/.github/workflows/test.yml