Re: [GSoC Patch v2 5/7] repo: add path.index with absolute and relative suffix formatting

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jul 24, 2026, 19:21 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqv7a45h3v.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <CA+rGoLcgHYk1BgWyNmJT6SGmo6xb_Q4O=LT46FXaC=+tQ_U-qg@mail.gmail.com>

K Jayatheerth <jayatheerthkulkarni2005@gmail.com> writes:

Show 8 quoted lines

> While bare repos don't have a working tree (and therefore usually no index),
> scripts do sometimes set GIT_INDEX_FILE to build temporary indexes for
> tree manipulation.
>
> Should we strictly return an empty string for bare repos (similar to
> how we handle path.toplevel),
> or should we return the default <gitdir>/index path in case a script
> wants to know where it would be?

The path to the top level can be an empty string if you are already at the top level, which is neither an error nor an unusual condition. I do not understand the contrast you are drawing here.

I expect "tell me where the index is" to return <gitdir>/index, $GIT_INDEX_FILE, or whatever Git sets during setup. In other words, whatever repo's '.index_file' member holds when control reaches repo_read_index().

If a script checks that location and finds no file, that is the natural way to learn there is no index.