Re: git-dir requires work-tree; documentation improvements for working directory

[Yaroslav Nikitenko <metst13@gmail.com>]

2021-01-03 1:02 GMT+03:00, Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>:
> Yaroslav Nikitenko wrote:
>> 2021-01-02 22:12 GMT+03:00, Felipe Contreras
>> <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>:
>> > Yaroslav Nikitenko wrote:
>> >> I use git to manage my dotfiles with this command:
>> >>
>> >>     git --git-dir=/home/yaroslav/.cfg/ --work-tree=/home/yaroslav
>> >
>> > I do precisely the same thing.
>> >
>> >> When reading documentation, I noticed two issues.
>> >>
>> >> 1) The command doesn't work without --work-tree (even from the top
>> >> level directory, which is my home directory).
>> >>
>> >>     [~]$ git --git-dir=/home/yaroslav/.cfg/ status
>> >>     fatal: this operation must be run in a work tree
>> >
>> > That's weird. It works fine here (although I don't see why I would want
>> > that).
>>
>> BTW, how do you do that in your case?
>
> I have an alias:
>
>   alias config='git --git-dir=$HOME/.config/dotfiles/.git/
> --work-tree=$HOME'
>
> So, when I'm in my $HOME, I can do:
>
>   config status

Thanks.

>> > If you remove all your configuration does it still fail?
>>
>> It starts to work when I remove my .cfg/config. I've no idea why it
>> happens. Here is its contents:
>>
>> $ more .cfg/config
>> [core]
>> 	repositoryformatversion = 0
>> 	filemode = true
>> 	bare = true
>
> That's the difference: my core.bare is false.
>
> I do have a checked out work-tree because that's the only way I could
> get some commands to work, for example `git rebase`, even though I don't
> use that work-tree.
>
> I'm not sure if it makes sense to not assume '.' is the work-tree when
> 'core.bare=true', but I think it does make sense, so maybe just turn
> that off.
>
> Cheers.
>
> --
> Felipe Contreras
>

Thanks for the suggestion. I'd rather not change my config at the
moment. It's not difficult to provide work-tree in the alias.

However, I think that this is a bug in the implementation or the
documentation. It's not highlighted anywhere that the repository must
be non-bare for git-dir to work without explicit work-tree (an
opposite is stated in general).

Should I write a letter with [BUG] in its header for that to be noticed?
I'm surprised why there is no issue tracker for git.

Cheers,
Yaroslav Nikitenko