# GIT_WORK_TREE and GIT_DIR with git clone 3 messages from 2014-01-20 to 2014-01-21. Participants: Cosmin Apreutesei, Junio C Hamano. Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/35693 ## Cosmin Apreutesei, 2014-01-20 15:59 Subject: GIT_WORK_TREE and GIT_DIR with git clone Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAKJdRamFDDWRZDHBCe7GrXg0OWhLfBPq_ofsvowaW9d8VOGTMA%40mail.gmail.com ``` Hi, I would like to have git clone respect GIT_DIR (and --git-dir) so I can clone multiple repos into the same working directory (I know there was another request for this[1]). The pattern here is big projects that are modularized into multiple git repositories, but supposed to be overlaid over a common directory structure. I would like to be able to tell my users that they can simply do: git clone --git-dir=_/git/module1/.git module1-url git clone --git-dir=_/git/module2/.git module2-url which will overlay the files from both modules into the current directory, which from git's perspective is the work-tree for both modules. [1] http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/170073/match=git_work_tree+git_dir+git+clone ``` ## Junio C Hamano, 2014-01-21 20:23 Subject: Re: GIT_WORK_TREE and GIT_DIR with git clone Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/xmqq4n4xulrm.fsf%40gitster.dls.corp.google.com In-Reply-To: ``` Cosmin Apreutesei writes: > I would like to be able to tell my users that they can simply do: > > git clone --git-dir=_/git/module1/.git module1-url > git clone --git-dir=_/git/module2/.git module2-url > > which will overlay the files from both modules into the current > directory, which from git's perspective is the work-tree for both > modules. Would there be a sensible semantics in the resulting working tree? Which repository would a new file in such a combined working tree belong to? ``` ## Cosmin Apreutesei, 2014-01-21 21:37 Subject: Re: GIT_WORK_TREE and GIT_DIR with git clone Message-ID: URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/CAKJdRakBWR7ofvcc8uhQ09QwiAJs7uvRNwP3WyuF4ve7FWONgw%40mail.gmail.com In-Reply-To: ``` Hi, thanks for answering. >> I would like to be able to tell my users that they can simply do: >> >> git clone --git-dir=_/git/module1/.git module1-url >> git clone --git-dir=_/git/module2/.git module2-url >> >> which will overlay the files from both modules into the current >> directory, which from git's perspective is the work-tree for both >> modules. > > Would there be a sensible semantics in the resulting working tree? > Which repository would a new file in such a combined working tree > belong to? The developer would have to decide by way of `git add`. Ignoring other repos' files would be done by way of local config option `excludesfile` (.gitignore is out). To make it easier to work with git this way, a script that creates a subshell in the context of a repo can be done with something like `PS1="[$1 $PS1]" GIT_DIR=_git/$1/.git bash -i" -- git would then work as usual in that subshell for that specific repo, never leaving the working tree. I successfully employed the above scheme with luapower[1] packages, which are all different and mostly unrelated libraries, but which need to be overlaid over a common directory structure. And that's just an example. I can think of many projects that are modularized and yet the modules need to place many files in many places to make a working system (web frameworks, the linux filesystem, etc.) Currently, to clone a repo one has to do: export GIT_DIR=_git/submodule/.git git init git config --local core.worktree ../../.. git remote add origin ssh://git@github.com/luapower/submodule.git git fetch git branch --track master origin/master git checkout That's 6 commands for what could be: git clone --git-dir=_git/submodule/.git ssh://git@github.com/luapower/submodule.git Or even better: git clone --git-dirs=_git ssh://git@github.com/luapower/submodule.git [1] http://luapower.com ```