how to git an existing project on a server

Question

I do have an existing project on my inte.net server. now i decided to start git this. what i have to do to make a clean git out of it? What i tried / done so far on the server:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "initial"

than on locale machine:

git pull ssh://user@server/project
...
fatal: '/project' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

what are the steps i have to do?

thanks...

Answer 1

Adding this answer as you followed up with questions..

First check that your server repository is initialised as a git repository.

Then check that the path you have provided git is pointing to your server repository.

As @matt pointed out, use git clone ssh://user@server/project to make a local copy of the remote repo.

This is simpler (and the standard method) than initialising a local git repo, adding the remote url and pulling.

Hint: If you're not working inside the repository in the remote server (ie all distributed work will take place on machines other than the server) then it makes sense to use a bare repository, see this link:

How do you use "git --bare init" repository?