From e2bf7ce8b68b35adc5a8d9200a84373baf1cce8b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Heinz Fridolin <heinzfridolin@protonmail.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2026 02:37:47 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] project.el: Fix in submodules with nonexistent git root
 (bug#80402)

project-try-vc--search in a submodule directory tries to find the git
root directory, so the local variable root would be set to nil if it
didn't exist. Calling project--vc-merge-submodules-p on nil would lead
to a crash, so now the while loop aborts beforehand.
---
 lisp/progmodes/project.el | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/lisp/progmodes/project.el b/lisp/progmodes/project.el
index 0273eea26b8..afadd9b35a3 100644
--- a/lisp/progmodes/project.el
+++ b/lisp/progmodes/project.el
@@ -698,6 +698,7 @@ in the `project-current' call, the timeout is determined by
            vc-handled-backends))
          project)
     (while (and
+            root
             (eq backend 'Git)
             (project--vc-merge-submodules-p root)
             (project--submodule-p root))