FIX/COMMENT: git remote manual page

Hello,

I tried the example given at the bottom if the manual page of git remote.

·   Imitate git clone but track only selected branches

$ mkdir project.git $ cd project.git $ git init $ git remote add -f -t master -m master origin git://example.com/git.git/ $ git merge origin

It works like it is written.

But it seems this does not work with my special setup:
- I use GIT_DIR and GIT_WORK_TREE to specify another location for my
  repository, and to work from another directory,
- I name my remote with a custom name (not origin).

It fails at the last command :

    fatal: <my name> - not something we can merge

But if I try the command :

    git merge <my name>/master

the error message is different :

    fatal: This operation must be run in a work tree
    fatal: read-tree failed

I cd to the work tree and issue the same last command. Then it works.

I suspect the first error message is related to the remote name. And the second to the work tree not being the current directory.

Cheers, Michel

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 8:15 AM, Michel Briand <michelbriand@free.fr> wrote:

So you set GIT_DIR and GIT_WORK_TREE before running "git remote add"?

It fails to see "<my name>" points to a commit. Maybe it fails to read remote information from config..

What git version are use using? I did

GIT_DIR=git/.git GIT_WORK_TREE=git git/git merge origin # or a specific branch

and it worked fine here (recent master). That message means work-tree settings are not propagated to git-read-tree (run by git-merge).

Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com> - Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:48:58 +0700

Yes.

Huh, I don't know.

Hi,

I'm running Debian squeeze. Git is version 1.7.2.3.

Here is the complete command sequence I used:

~/tmp/git $ mkdir toto toto_wk
~/tmp/git $ GIT_DIR=toto GIT_WORK_TREE=toto_wk git init
Initialized empty Git repository in xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/tmp/git/toto/
~/tmp/git $ GIT_DIR=toto GIT_WORK_TREE=toto_wk git remote add -f -t master -m master TOTO xxxxxx/shlib 
Updating TOTO
remote: Counting objects: 36, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (32/32), done.
remote: Total 36 (delta 9), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (36/36), done.
From xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/shlib
 * [new branch]      master     -> TOTO/master
From xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/shlib
 * [new tag]         1.0        -> 1.0
 * [new tag]         1.0.1      -> 1.0.1
~/tmp/git $ GIT_DIR=toto GIT_WORK_TREE=toto_wk git merge TOTO
fatal: This operation must be run in a work tree
fatal: read-tree failed
~/tmp/git $ ls toto_wk/
<NOTHING>

I re-issue the latest command :

~/tmp/git $ GIT_DIR=toto GIT_WORK_TREE=toto_wk git merge TOTO Already up-to-date.

Strange isn't it ?

But directory is still empty ~/tmp/git $ ls toto_wk/ <NOTHING>

Trying to recover :

~/tmp/git $ GIT_DIR=toto GIT_WORK_TREE=toto_wk git reset --hard

The directory is correct (in sync with my master branch).

If I do :

...git init ...git remote add... cd toto_wk GIT_DIR=../toto GIT_WORK_TREE=. git merge TOTO

It works !

Adding /master after remote name doesn't make any difference. Please forget this idea.

The problem seems to reside in the work tree parameter (. or not).

Cheers, Michel

On Sat, Dec 25, 2010 at 6:41 PM, Michel Briand <michelbriand@free.fr> wrote:

Note that this also sets core.worktree=`cwd`/toto_wk so you only need to set GIT_DIR in the following commands. But I wouldn't recommend it, just set GIT_WORK_TREE the way you are doing, until maybe 1.7.4. core.worktree is buggy.

Thanks for the instructions. We've got a problem with $GIT_WORK_TREE vs cwd here. I'll send a patch later.

Actually no. 'git-merge' is successful and its last step is to call 'git read-tree --reset -u SHA-1' to update worktree. Unfortunately, git's internal cwd has been moved to ~/tmp/git/toto_wk while $GIT_WORK_TREE is still "toto_wk". When git-read-tree is run, it tries to find a worktree at ~/tmp/git/toto_wk/toto_wk.

Because git-read-tree fails to run.

Or you can try this until new git release:

GIT_DIR=toto GIT_WORK_TREE=$HOME/tmp/toto_wk git merge TOTO

or

GIT_DIR=toto git merge TOTO

In other words, making worktree absolute should work (core.worktree is always set absolute by git-init).