git --git-dir not working as expected

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I am trying to run git from a different directory than I am in. So for example if I am in:

cd /home/domain/
git status << runs perfect ie
# On branch master
# Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 6 commits.

So now I want to run this command from a different directory using the --git-dir option.

So lets say I'm in root/ and try this:

git --git-dir="/home/domain/" status
## Error 
fatal: Not a git repository: '/home/domain/'

I've also tried to include the .git folder i.e.

git --git-dir="/home/domain/.git/" status

But this looks like it's trying to run git from the root, i.e. deleting everything from my domain folder and adding everything in root.

Hope someone can advise on what I'm doing wrong.

git
4 Answers

Starting git 1.8.5 (which should be out next week), it will be even simpler:

 git -C "/home/domain/" status

No need to set --git-dir and --work-tree anymore!

However, as noted by OmarL in the comments:

I have found that -C is not quite equivalent to --git-dir --work-tree, because -C does not override the GIT_DIR environment variable.

See commit 44e1e4 by Nazri Ramliy:

It takes more keypresses to invoke git command in a different directory without leaving the current directory:

  1. (cd ~/foo && git status) git --git-dir=~/foo/.git --work-tree=~/foo status GIT_DIR=~/foo/.git GIT_WORK_TREE=~/foo git status
  2. (cd ../..; git grep foo)
  3. for d in d1 d2 d3; do (cd $d && git svn rebase); done

The methods shown above are acceptable for scripting but are too cumbersome for quick command line invocations.

With this new option, the above can be done with fewer keystrokes:

  1. git -C ~/foo status
  2. git -C ../.. grep foo
  3. for d in d1 d2 d3; do git -C $d svn rebase; done
VonC_63090 
git --git-dir="/home/domain/" status
## Error 
fatal: Not a git repository: '/home/domain/'

With Git 2.26 (Q1 2020), the documentation is clearer.

One effect of specifying where the GIT_DIR is (either with the environment variable, or with the "git --git-dir=<where> cmd" option) is to disable the repository discovery.

This has been placed a bit more stress in the documentation, as new users often get confused.

See commit d82ad54 (30 Jan 2020) by Heba Waly (HebaWaly).
(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster -- in commit 17e4a1b, 12 Feb 2020)

git: update documentation for --git-dir

Signed-off-by: Heba Waly
Helped-by: Junio C Hamano

git --git-dir <path> is a bit confusing and sometimes doesn't work as the user would expect it to.

For example, if the user runs git --git-dir=<path> status, git will skip the repository discovery algorithm and will assign the work tree to the user's current work directory unless otherwise specified.
When this assignment is wrong, the output will not match the user's expectations.

This patch updates the documentation to make it clearer.

So the documentation for git --git-dir now includes:

--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)

VonC_63090
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