Definition of "the Git repository"

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