Re: Git 1.8.4.2: 'git-rev-parse --is-inside-git-dir' wrong output!

From: John Keeping <john@keeping.me.uk>
Date: Nov 2, 2013, 14:06 UTC
Message-ID: <20131102140656.GE24023@serenity.lan>
In-Reply-To: <11593D3DCFCD4D24BB881B9E5FAB79C0@PhilipOakley>

On Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 01:47:02PM -0000, Philip Oakley wrote:

Show 34 quoted lines

> From: "John Keeping" <john@keeping.me.uk>
> Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2013 10:58 AM
> > On Fri, Nov 01, 2013 at 06:19:51PM -0500, Ville Walveranta wrote:
> >> "git-rev-parse --is-inside-git-dir" outputs "fatal: Not a git
> >> repository (or any of the parent directories): .git", instead of
> >> "false" when outside of a git directory.  "--is-inside-work-tree"
> >> behaves the same way. Both commands work correctly (i.e. output
> >> "true") when inside a git directory, or inside a work tree,
> >> respectively.
> >
> > I think that's intentional - and it looks like the behaviour has not
> > changed since these options were added.  With the current behaviour 
> > you
> > get three possible outcomes from "git 
> > rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree":
> >
> >    if worktree=$(git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2>/dev/null)
> >    then
> >        if test "$worktree" = true
> >        then
> >            echo 'inside work tree'
> >        else
> >            echo 'in repository, but not in work tree'
> >        fi
> >    else
> >        echo 'not in repository'
> >    fi
> > --
> 
> 
> Shouldn't this case which produces "fatal:..." need to be documented in 
> the man page?
> https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-rev-parse.html 
> doesn't mention it.

I'm not sure where it should go in there. The documentation for --git-dir says:

   If $GIT_DIR is not defined and the current directory is not detected
   to lie in a Git repository or work tree print a message to stderr and
   exit with nonzero status.

but there reality is that if you do not specify --parseopt or --sq-quote then the command expects to be run in a Git repository [1], so perhaps it would be better to say something under "Operation Modes" or in the description.

[1] After taking account of $GIT_DIR, $GIT_WORK_TREE, and arguments to
    the base "git" driver that affect these variables.