Definition of "the Git repository"

[Kevin Buckley <Kevin.Buckley@pawsey.org.au>]

Hi there,

raising this on the back of a discussion over at the Software
Carpentry lesson about Git,

    https://github.com/swcarpentry/git-novice/issues/810

I used the book to justify my claim that it is the .git directory
that is the repository, but I do have to concede that the way that
the text in section 2.1 of the book reads, does suggest that one
can refer to the working directory PLUS the .git directory as a
"repository" as well as being able to refer to the .git directory
alone as the "repository".

In the way I think of it

git init

initialises a Git repository, however, the only thing that changes
as a result is that a .git directory has been created, ergo, the
.git directory is the repository.

Furthermore, the fact that one can take the .git directory, move it
to a new directory and start using it there (very much a nice feature)
also suggests to me that it is the .git directory that is the repository,
as distict from a working directory, under Git control because of the
existence of a repository within it.

Interested to hear any thoughts around the semantics here,
Kevin Buckley

-- 
Supercomputing Systems Administrator
Pawsey Supercomputing Centre