threads / discuss / 41855

`git rev-parse --git-dir` relative to current working directory?

Subject: `git rev-parse --git-dir` relative to current working directory?

## tl;dr

2 messages between Mar 29, 2016 and Mar 29, 2016.

replies: 1people: 2as markdown or json

Elliott Cable· Mar 29, 2016, 10:32 UTC · lore

So, `git help rev-parse` [mentions the following][rev-parse], as of 2.8.0:

    --git-dir
       Show $GIT_DIR if defined. Otherwise show the path to the .git
       directory. The path shown, when relative, is relative to the
       current working directory.

However, when inside a symlinked repository, this doesn't function as advertised:

    $ ln -s a-symlink a-git-repo
    $ cd a-symlink/.git/hooks
    $ git rev-parse --git-dir
    /Users/ec/Documents/a-git-repo/.git

From my reading of that snippet of documentation (“The path shown ... is relative to the CWD”), I'd expect to receive `..`, not `/absolute/path/to/a-git-repo/.git`.

Is the documentation incorrect, or is this a bug? (I'm hoping the latter: I'm trying to write git-scripting that is sensitive to symlinks, i.e. retains the user's CWD without unintentionally resolving symlinks in their path during operation; and it'd be ideal if this were handled as documented, saving me manual effort checking symlinks.)

⁓ ELLIOTTCABLE — fly safe.
  http://ell.io/tt
   [rev-parse]:
<https://git-scm.com/docs/git-rev-parse/2.8.0#_options_for_files>
      "git rev-parse documentation @2.8.0"
John Keeping· Mar 29, 2016, 10:50 UTC · re: Elliott Cable · lore

Re: `git rev-parse --git-dir` relative to current working directory?

On Tue, Mar 29, 2016 at 05:32:31AM -0500, Elliott Cable wrote:
Show 25 quoted lines
> So, `git help rev-parse` [mentions the following][rev-parse], as of
> 2.8.0:
> 
>     --git-dir
>        Show $GIT_DIR if defined. Otherwise show the path to the .git
>        directory. The path shown, when relative, is relative to the
>        current working directory.
> 
> However, when inside a symlinked repository, this doesn't function as
> advertised:
> 
>     $ ln -s a-symlink a-git-repo
>     $ cd a-symlink/.git/hooks
>     $ git rev-parse --git-dir
>     /Users/ec/Documents/a-git-repo/.git
> 
> From my reading of that snippet of documentation (“The path shown ... is
> relative to the CWD”), I'd expect to receive `..`, not
> `/absolute/path/to/a-git-repo/.git`.
> 
> Is the documentation incorrect, or is this a bug? (I'm hoping the
> latter: I'm trying to write git-scripting that is sensitive to symlinks,
> i.e. retains the user's CWD without unintentionally resolving symlinks
> in their path during operation; and it'd be ideal if this were handled
> as documented, saving me manual effort checking symlinks.)

The documentation seems correct to me, it just requires careful parsing; I read it as:

	if the path printed it relative
	then it is relative to the current working directory

but it makes not claims about when a relative path will be printed (or even if one ever will be, although in my testing the path is relative only if $CWD can be stripped from the beginning of the path; in other words only when no component of the relative path would be "../").

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