Re: `git worktree list` when bare repository is named `.git`

From: Caleb White <cdwhite3@pm.me>
Date: Oct 11, 2024, 03:52 UTC
Message-ID: <D4SO70M9Z1QI.1AC4QF9ZG8T4L@pm.me>

Show 22 quoted lines

> It seems that `.git` is always stripped from the `git worktree list` output (including in `--porcelain` mode). This becomes relevant with bare repositories. Here is a bare repository functioning as expected:
> 
> $ mkdir bare1
> $ cd bare1
> $ git init --bare
> Initialized empty Git repository in /private/tmp/bare1/
> $ git worktree list
> /private/tmp/bare1  (bare)
> 
> But if we create a bare repository in a directory named `.git`, `git worktree list` displays the parent directory as the worktree, even though `git status` doesn't recognize it as a worktree:
> 
> $ mkdir -p bare2/.git
> $ cd bare2/.git
> $ git init --bare
> Initialized empty Git repository in /private/tmp/bare2/.git/
> $ git worktree list
> /private/tmp/bare2  (bare)
> $ cd /tmp/bare2
> $ git status
> fatal: this operation must be run in a work tree
> 
> However, Git _will_ recognize the parent directory (/tmp/bare2) as a Git repository for the purposes of commands like `git rev-parse --git-dir`. I suspect this can be fixed in `get_main_worktree` by only stripping a `.git` suffix from the path if the main worktree is not bare.

The behavior you are seeing is correct and expected (and I use bare repositories with worktrees like this).

The actual bare repository can be the directory, in a .git directory, or in any other directory (as long as it has a .git file that points to the actual bare repository). The directory will still be considered a bare repository. For example:

    mkdir -p repo/.bare
    cd repo/.bare
    Initialized empty Git repository in /private/tmp/repo/.bare/
    git init --bare
    cd ..
    echo 'gitdir: .bare' >.git
    git worktree list
    git worktree add master
    /private/tmp/repo  (bare)
    /private/tmp/repo/master

Bare repositories by definition do not have a working tree, and therefore it is expected that `git status` fails (can only be executed in a worktree) while other commands succeed.

For the purposes of `git worktree list`, the `.git` suffix **should not** be shown. You should never try to use `git worktree list` to get the actual path of the repository, the docs give the following warning:

    See gitrepository-layout[5] for more information. The rule of thumb is do
    not make any assumption about whether a path belongs to $GIT_DIR or
    $GIT_COMMON_DIR when you need to directly access something inside $GIT_DIR.
    Use git rev-parse --git-path to get the final path.

Best,