Re: [PATCH] git-init: set up GIT_DIR/workdir if GIT_WORK_DIR is set

From: Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
Date: Mar 12, 2007, 20:05 UTC
Message-ID: <7vird6qlbn.fsf@assigned-by-dhcp.cox.net>
In-Reply-To: <20070312180837.GA22701@moooo.ath.cx>

Matthias Lederhofer <matled@gmx.net> writes:

Show 7 quoted lines

> I just thought that GIT_WORK_DIR should be relative to the current
> working directory because it's more intuitive, e.g.
>
>     $ git --git-dir=/path/to/repo.git --work-dir=../.. add a
>
> where ../.. matches the path to the toplevel working directory from
> cwd.  But this definitely is annoying when changing directories.

Not so fast. That was a trick suggestion, only meant to see if you have thought through the issues, and you did not have to agree with me so quickly ;-). What I was pointing out was merely that specifying the top as a path relative to the cwd in permanent basis was not useful if you are going to cd around, which is a tautology.

For a one-shot thing, I would agree that being able to say "I am in Documentation/howto directory of the whole thing, so I can name the top of my working tree as ../.." is far more useful and natural than having to say "ehhhh, what is the top of the working tree relative to my repository???". If it is not a one-shot thing and the user expects to cd around, then:

	$ GIT_WORK_DIR=$(pwd)/../..; export GIT_WORK_DIR
	$ git foo ...; git bar ...;

would be more natural, so I do not expect the semantics of relative path would be a big issue in reality, as long as we make it clear that it is relative to cwd.

By the way, I do not find your command line example intuitive at all, whether the --work-dir= parameter is relative or absolute. Do you honestry expect that loooong command line is something people would use in real life?

With $GIT_DIR/workdir support, I would expect that people would do (if what is done is only to add one file and nothing else):

	$ GIT_DIR=/path/to/repo.git git add a

And without $GIT_DIR/workdir support:

	$ GIT_DIR=/path/to/repo.git GIT_WORK_DIR=../.. git add a

If the user is going to work in the working tree for extended period of time, cd'ing around and running multiple git commands:

	$ GIT_DIR=/path/to/repo.git; export GIT_DIR
        $ git foo ; git bar ; cd subdir ; git baz ; ...

And without $GIT_DIR/workdir support, perhaps the user would do:

	$ GIT_DIR=/path/to/repo.git; export GIT_DIR
	$ GIT_WORK_DIR=$(pwd)/../..; export GIT_WORK_DIR
        $ git foo ; git bar ; cd subdir ; git baz ; ...

What I am getting at is that I personally feel that --git-dir= option is already an unnecessary redundancy that is there only to confuse new people by having more than one way to do the same thing, and --work-dir= option seems to be only adding to the same confusion. Do we really want that as an option?