Re: [PATCH v11] setup: improve error diagnosis for invalid .git files

From: Tian Yuchen <a3205153416@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 4, 2026, 11:03 UTC
Message-ID: <99c6a437-3fc3-4d9a-9465-4c47a9777776@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqo6l49mrt.fsf@gitster.g>

Hi Junio and Phillip,

Thanks for the detailed reply!

After reading through your discussion, I believe the most crucial point is:

> "We were given an invalid GIT_DIR, we are not doing
> discovery, hence we are operating without a repository"

If I understand correctly, the expected behavior should be: when a user explicitly passes 'GIT_DIR=/dev/null git diff', Git should no longer need to "search" or "guess" anything. Instead, if it's a trash file (or something similar) rather a repository, Git should simply act as if no repository exists. Is that correct?

So what I'm doing next is:

> All calls to read_gitfile_gently(path, NULL) need to be
> audited and then we need to decide which ones to leave lenient, and
> which ones are OK to tighten together with the call used during the
> repository discovery.

Will be working on it in the next few days.

Regards,

Yuchen