permissions

If .git is not readable, but ../.git is, .git works with the database in ../.git. Is that the desired behavior? It would seem more appropriate that git fail with a "permission denied" error. In particular, if .git is not readable and there is no database between $PWD and $GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES, the current error is: fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

Wouldn't it be better to have the error message be something like: .git: permission denied

After all, it is a git repository, so "Not a git repository" is not accurate.