GIT_DIR vs. --git-dir

[mjg@localhost ~]$ GIT_DIR=~/.githome git rev-parse --show-toplevel /home/mjg

[mjg@localhost ~]$ git --git-dir=~/.githome rev-parse --show-toplevel fatal: Not a git repository: '~/.githome'

Huh? Ok, so most users probably would not try further and blame git, but:

[mjg@localhost ~]$ git --git-dir=/home/mjg/.githome rev-parse --show-toplevel /home/mjg

(All this is with core.worktree set to /home/mjg.)

So, while I do understand that we don't expand '~' in any of these cases and it's only a matter of bash tilde expansion kicking in or not, we might want to do something about it. (--git-dir=$HOME/.githome gets expanded, as well, and --git-dir=.githome works from the appropriate cwd only).

Michael