Bug: git-gui stops showing untracked files when invalid .git file is present in a subfolder

To reproduce:

git init testrepo cd testrepo touch test.txt mkdir sub echo 'gitdir: path/to/nowhere' >> sub/.git git gui

Displays no files/changes, no error message. Should display test.txt in git-gui. Or possibly fail with error (though git status does not fail). Shell should display error message.

Observed on Ubuntu 13.10 using git version 1.8.3.2 git-gui version 0.17.0

Note the same happens when writing rubbish like 'xyz' into that .git file (Violating gitfile format).

Note that when trying to launch git gui from that subfolder, I get a valid error message: fatal: Not a git repository: path/to/nowhere same as when running git status

I guess that git-gui tries to do something with submodules, but some failure is not handled well.

regards,
  Thibault