Re: Definition of "the Git repository"

From: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 25, 2021, 05:56 UTC
Message-ID: <87tulmxyss.fsf@evledraar.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <7dd55e85-38eb-7346-ff10-7124102cd22b@pawsey.org.au>

On Fri, Jun 25 2021, Kevin Buckley wrote:

Show 30 quoted lines

> 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

I think the right answer to this is that there is no right answer, if you read gitglossary(7) you'll find it mostly backs your argument, but you'll also find mentions in git's own documentation that say things like "a subdirectory of your repository" when referring to the repository's working tree.

More importantly it seems like this is documentation for novices, I think it's generally more important to get important notions like their historical data being stored in that .git thingy than it is to nail down every concept involved in that with 100% accuracy.