Subject: Re: git status doesn't ignore GIT_DIR directory?

From: Duy Nguyen <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 May 2015 09:22:56 +0700

On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 07:03:48PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:
> As far as I know, GIT_DIR was prepared as a mechanism to point at
> another .git directory that does not live inside the working tree, not
> as a mechanism to rename it to arbitrary name. E.g.
> 
>  $ git init
>  $ mv .git .svn
>  $ GIT_DIR=$(pwd)/.svn ; export GIT_DIR
> 
> is not expected to work.

This is not the first time we get this report. Perhaps we should
document it.

-- 8< --
Subject: git.txt: mention the special name ".git" in GIT_DIR

Signed-off-by: Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy <[email-masked]>
---
diff --git a/Documentation/git.txt b/Documentation/git.txt
index 90c5f37..91d6dd2 100644
--- a/Documentation/git.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git.txt
@@ -691,6 +691,9 @@ Git so take care if using Cogito etc.
 	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.
++
+Note that if GIT_DIR is set explicitly to a directory inside working
+tree, the directory name must be ".git".
 
 'GIT_WORK_TREE'::
 	Set the path to the root of the working tree.
-- 8< --