Why does the includeif woks how it does?

Hi,

I have been playing around with the includeif from the .gitconfig. It did not work for me at first, but after some help, I did get it to work.

If you are curious. My Problem and what else was discussed here: https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/4823

Anyway. So, I was trying to access the email property which was set through an includeif config. It did not work because I was in a non git directory. Yes, I do know that the property set in includeif is named gitdir, but it was not obvious to me that you need to be in a git tracked directory for it to work.

I am trying to understand why it must be this way. Why does it not work in non git tracked directories?

I am not sure if I am conveying my Question correctly. Please read the messages in the github issue if the content of this email was confusing.

Best regards Dominik von Haller