[BUG?] Path limiting in "git log" when run from another subdir

The following works in the git.git repo:

$ cd t $ git log -- /Documentation [...]

but the following does not:

$ cd t $ git log -- /Documentation/RelNotes fatal: Could not switch to '/Documentation': No such file or directory

Is this the intended behavior?

...Johan

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 6:59 PM, Johan Herland <johan@herland.net> wrote:

What version? Mine (recent master) does not work

~/w/git/t $ ../git log -- /Documentation fatal: '/Documentation' is outside repository

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 2:22 PM, Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com> wrote:

We initially found it on 1.7.9.5, and conrfirmed it on various 1.7.10 versions. A bisect reveals that this behavior changed in v1.7.11.5-35-gf4c21e8 (Michael Haggerty: real_path(): properly handle nonexistent top-level paths).

Does this mean that "git log -- /Documentation" never should have worked in the first place (and was "fixed" by this commit), or that it should work (but was broken by this commit)?

In any case, what is the _preferred_ way to path-limit "git log" to Documentation/RelNotes, when my cwd is t/?

Thanks for your help,

...Johan

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 8:16 PM, Johan Herland <johan@herland.net> wrote:

OK checking. I still don't know why it does not happen to me. Any special in gitdir/worktree setting? That commit is in master.

I think that should mean Documentation at root. "git log -- `chdir ../Documentation;pwd`" works and that clearly conflicts with interpreting "/Documentation" as the directory at worktree's root.

If you want worktree root no matter where you stand, use "git log -- :/Documentation/RelNotes". The idea is ":" starts some "magic" in path handling, but for now there is only ":/". Or if you don't like magic, `git rev-parse --git-dir` should give you worktree's root to start with.

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 8:30 PM, Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com> wrote:

What does "GIT_TRACE_SETUP=1 git log -- /Documentation" show?

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 3:39 PM, Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com> wrote:

FWIW, this issue is resolved as far as I'm concerned. I was simply using the wrong syntax...

Anyway, with current master:

$ GIT_TRACE_SETUP=1 ../git log -1 -- /Documentation setup: git_dir: .git setup: worktree: /home/jherland/git/git setup: cwd: /home/jherland/git/git setup: prefix: t/ fatal: '/Documentation' is outside repository

With v1.7.11:

$ GIT_TRACE_SETUP=1 ../git log -1 -- /Documentation
setup: git_dir: .git
setup: worktree: /home/jherland/git/git
setup: cwd: /home/jherland/git/git
setup: prefix: t/
commit 0ce2e396ee9fb0fa07e8381b338e49859dbf03db
Author: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date:   Sun Jun 17 14:07:15 2012 -0700

    Git 1.7.11

    Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

...Johan

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 3:30 PM, Nguyen Thai Ngoc Duy <pclouds@gmail.com> wrote:

Ah, ok, that's exactly what I wanted. Then I guess "cd t && git log -- /Documentation" should have never worked in the first place, and I question about "git log -- /Documentation/RelNotes" was misguided.

Thanks for clearing up my confusion.

...Johan