On Saturday 2021-02-27 22:06, Junio C Hamano wrote:
Show 9 quoted lines
> Martin Nicolay <m.nicolay@osm-ag.de> writes: >> *facepalm* The part about GIT_DIR setting the work-tree in addition to >> the repository I hadn't read. How embarrasing. >> >> I apoligize for my bad reading skills and wasting you time. > > We would love to hear observations on which part of the > documentation was misleading and suggestions on how to make it > harder to misinterpret it.
There are multiple explanations regarding $DIR_DIR or --git-dir.
From git(1) two parts:
1)
--git-dir=<path>
Set the path to the repository (".git" directory). This can also be
controlled by setting the GIT_DIR environment variable. It can be
an absolute path or relative path to current working directory. Specifying the location of the ".git" directory using this option
(or GIT_DIR environment variable) turns off the repository
discovery that tries to find a directory with ".git" subdirectory
(which is how the repository and the top-level of the working tree
are discovered), and tells Git that you are at the top level of the
working tree. If you are not at the top-level directory of the
working tree, you should tell Git where the top-level of the
working tree is, with the --work-tree=<path> option (or
GIT_WORK_TREE environment variable)2)
GIT_DIR
If the GIT_DIR environment variable is set then it specifies a path
to use instead of the default .git for the base of the repository.
The --git-dir command-line option also sets this value.The first part mentions the dual effect of setting git-dir, the second not so.
As I had used GIT_DIR described in the second part, I feel vindicated ;-) Hooray, instead of a software-bug I've found a documentation-bug.
My suggestion is to ammend the first sentence to something like "If the GIT_DIR environment variable is set then it specifies a path to use instead of the default .git for the base of the repository and also the top-level directory of the working tree."