Re: Git 1.8.4.2: 'git-rev-parse --is-inside-git-dir' wrong output!

From: Ville Walveranta <walveranta@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 2, 2013, 19:42 UTC
Message-ID: <CACbqpSspsUvw3QXnSmOXA2boenh3y4DjHO-813OTna7cpSXkZQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CE13C82CA4C24CA8B56380DA00A700A5@PhilipOakley>

Without the functionality such as that 1.7.9.5 still offered, it is now not possible to use "git-rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree" to detect whether the current location is controlled by a git repository without emitting the "fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git" error message, when it is not. There is no functional "--quiet" switch, and the usual error/std redirection to /dev/null doesn't seem to work to squelch the output.

If "--is-inside-git-dir" and "--is-inside-work-tree" are indeed not supposed to emit "false" when outside of a git repository, perhaps there is another way I can use (in a bash script) to cleanly detect whether a specific path is part of a git repo or not?

Thanks for any insights on this! :-)

Ville

On Sat, Nov 2, 2013 at 12:03 PM, Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org> wrote:

Show 80 quoted lines

> From: "John Keeping" <john@keeping.me.uk>
> Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2013 2:06 PM
>
>> On Sat, Nov 02, 2013 at 01:47:02PM -0000, Philip Oakley wrote:
>>>
>>> From: "John Keeping" <john@keeping.me.uk>
>>> Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2013 10:58 AM
>>> > On Fri, Nov 01, 2013 at 06:19:51PM -0500, Ville Walveranta wrote:
>>> >> "git-rev-parse --is-inside-git-dir" outputs "fatal: Not a git
>>> >> repository (or any of the parent directories): .git", instead of
>>> >> "false" when outside of a git directory.  "--is-inside-work-tree"
>>> >> behaves the same way. Both commands work correctly (i.e. output
>>> >> "true") when inside a git directory, or inside a work tree,
>>> >> respectively.
>>> >
>>> > I think that's intentional - and it looks like the behaviour has
>>> > not
>>> > changed since these options were added.  With the current behaviour
>>> > you
>>> > get three possible outcomes from "git
>>> > rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree":
>>> >
>>> >    if worktree=$(git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2>/dev/null)
>>> >    then
>>> >        if test "$worktree" = true
>>> >        then
>>> >            echo 'inside work tree'
>>> >        else
>>> >            echo 'in repository, but not in work tree'
>>> >        fi
>>> >    else
>>> >        echo 'not in repository'
>>> >    fi
>>> > --
>>>
>>>
>>> Shouldn't this case which produces "fatal:..." need to be documented
>>> in
>>> the man page?
>>> https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-rev-parse.html
>>> doesn't mention it.
>>
>>
>> I'm not sure where it should go in there.  The documentation for
>> --git-dir says:
>>
>>   If $GIT_DIR is not defined and the current directory is not detected
>>   to lie in a Git repository or work tree print a message to stderr
>> and
>>   exit with nonzero status.
>>
>> but there reality is that if you do not specify --parseopt
>> or --sq-quote
>> then the command expects to be run in a Git repository [1], so perhaps
>> it would be better to say something under "Operation Modes" or in the
>> description.
>>
>>
>> [1] After taking account of $GIT_DIR, $GIT_WORK_TREE, and arguments to
>>    the base "git" driver that affect these variables.
>>
>
> Yes, but given Ville's surprise and the need for special prior knowledge
> of the points you raised, I still think that some short note is needed.
>
> It can/could be read that you need to invoke --git-dir as an option
> before the mentioned die() exit is taken, rather than it applying to
> all(?) the path relevant options.
>
> Either the --git-dir condition needs to say it also applies
> to --is-inside-git-dir and --is-inside-work-tree
> (and --is-bare-repository?), or add a "see --git-dir preconditions." to
> each of those options. It's easy to be wise after the event hence my
> preference for a suitable note.
>
> regards
>
> Philip
>
>