From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Mon, 23 May 2016 19:44:48 GMT
Subject: Re: GIT_INDEX_FILE relative path breaks in subdir
Message-ID: <xmqqtwho8spb.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <20160523185258.GA10389@kitenet.net>

Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name> writes:

>> I am not sure if relative to PWD is useful.  If it were relative to
>> either the GIT_DIR or the GIT_WORK_TREE, i.e. a fixed point, then
>> you can set and export GIT_INDEX_FILE and chdir around without
>> having to adjust it.  If it were relative to PWD, you would need to
>> adjust it every time you chdir, no?
>
> Good point, I had not considered this use case. Although if I set a
> long-term environment variable and expect to chdir around, well, that's
> what absolute paths are for. All my uses of GIT_INDEX_FILE
> are in short-term contexts where the program does not chdir.

Same to you.  I didn't consider a single-shot

	$ GIT_INDEX_FILE=./a-temporary-file-here git do something

It would be natural if we have that temporary file here where we
are in that use case.