Subject: .git file (Re: [long] worktree setup cases)

From: Jonathan Nieder <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:28:55 -0500

Enrico Weigelt wrote:

> Why not using a symlink here ?

Suppose I wonder just that.  grepping through setup.c for ".git file",
I find the function read_gitfile_gently() --- why was that added?

$ git log -Sread_gitfile_gently setup.c
commit b44ebb19e3234c5dffe9869ceac5408bb44c2e20
Author: Lars Hjemli <[email-masked]>
Date:   Wed Feb 20 23:13:13 2008 +0100

    Add platform-independent .git "symlink"
    
    This patch allows .git to be a regular textfile containing the path of
    the real git directory (prefixed with "gitdir: "), which can be useful on
    platforms lacking support for real symlinks.
    
    Signed-off-by: Lars Hjemli <[email-masked]>
    Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>

Hope that helps.