Re: git-last-modified on bare repository

From: Kristoffer Haugsbakk <kristofferhaugsbakk@fastmail.com>
Date: Jan 5, 2026, 15:17 UTC
Message-ID: <f9449d2c-cbfd-46b0-a961-5c668b895503@app.fastmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <aVvSwkK7RdpFDaVv@pks.im>

On Mon, Jan 5, 2026, at 16:03, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:

Show 28 quoted lines

> On Mon, Jan 05, 2026 at 02:35:56PM +0100, Gusted wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Now trying to actually make Forgejo use git last-modified after being
>> pointed to the non-yet-documented options but I quickly noticed that it
>> looks like it does not work as intended on bare repositories when looking
>> specifying files.
>>
>> $ git clone https://codeberg.org/Gusted/math-accuracy
>> $ cd math-accuracy
>> $ git last-modified -- LICENSES
>> 768f05837e7db2832425bc3b65d0f524e81b2769        LICENSES
>>
>> And on a bare repository:
>>
>> $ git clone --bare https://codeberg.org/Gusted/math-accuracy
>> $ cd math-accuracy.git
>> $ git last-modified -- LICENSE
>> fatal: ambiguous argument 'LICENSE': unknown revision or path not in the
>> working tree.
>> Use '--' to separate paths from revisions, like this:
>> 'git <command> [<revision>...] -- [<file>...]'
>>
>> Is a worktree required for this to work?
>
> A worktree is not required for this to work. The problem is that you've
> got a typo in there: you say "LICENSE", but the actual file is called
> "LICENSES". If you spell it correctly it should work alright.

The error message is more generic than it needs to be though. It has seen a `--` but it falls back to “revision or path”. A more pointed error error message “unknown path” would make it harder to make the mistake of dismissing the error as a bogus one.

Of course, separate issue and all.