Subject: [PATCH] apply: strip ./ prefix from --directory argument

From: "Joaquim Rocha via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2026 17:08:30 +0000

From: Joaquim Rocha <[email-masked]>

When passing a relative path like --directory=./some/sub, the leading
"./" caused apply to prepend it literally to patch filenames, resulting
in an error (invalid path).

Since using "./" is almost memory muscle for many, strip the "./"
prefix so it behaves the same as --directory=some/sub.

Signed-off-by: Joaquim Rocha <[email-masked]>
---
    apply: strip ./ prefix from --directory argument

Published-As: https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git/releases/tag/pr-git-2198%2Fjoaquimrocha%2Fapply-directory-dot-slash-prefix-v1
Fetch-It-Via: git fetch https://github.com/gitgitgadget/git pr-git-2198/joaquimrocha/apply-directory-dot-slash-prefix-v1
Pull-Request: https://github.com/git/git/pull/2198

 apply.c               | 4 ++++
 t/t4128-apply-root.sh | 9 +++++++++
 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+)

diff --git a/apply.c b/apply.c
index 3de4aa4d2e..a44c54077c 100644
--- a/apply.c
+++ b/apply.c
@@ -5001,6 +5001,10 @@ static int apply_option_parse_directory(const struct option *opt,
 	BUG_ON_OPT_NEG(unset);
 
 	strbuf_reset(&state->root);
+
+	if (starts_with(arg, "./"))
+		arg += 2;
+
 	strbuf_addstr(&state->root, arg);
 	strbuf_complete(&state->root, '/');
 	return 0;
diff --git a/t/t4128-apply-root.sh b/t/t4128-apply-root.sh
index f6db5a79dd..2f446a4d69 100755
--- a/t/t4128-apply-root.sh
+++ b/t/t4128-apply-root.sh
@@ -43,6 +43,15 @@ test_expect_success 'apply --directory -p (2) ' '
 
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'apply --directory (./ prefix)' '
+	git reset --hard initial &&
+	git apply --directory=./some/sub -p3 --index patch &&
+	echo Bello >expect &&
+	git show :some/sub/dir/file >actual &&
+	test_cmp expect actual &&
+	test_cmp expect some/sub/dir/file
+'
+
 cat > patch << EOF
 diff --git a/newfile b/newfile
 new file mode 100644

base-commit: 6fcee4785280a08e7f271bd015a4dc33753e2886
-- 
gitgitgadget