Suppose I have a git working directory, i.e. the directory which has a subdirectory called .git.
I wonder if the current directory matters when I run a git command. Is it okay to run a git command
directly under the working directory
directly under some subdirectory of (subdirectory of) the working directory
directly under the parent directory of the working directory?
Consider
- git commands which can take an argument which specifies some files, e.g.
git add, and - git commands which doesn’t take an argument that specifies some files, e.g.
git pull,git push.
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Answer
directly under the parent directory of the working directory?
Actually you can run it anywhere you want as long as you reference the git repo:
git --git-dir=/path/to/my/repo/.git add .
That means wherever you are (.: current folder) will be considered as your working tree. A
You can even specify your working tree:
git --work-tree=/a/path --git-dir=/path/to/my/repo/.git add .
In that latter case, you even can execute that last command anywhere you want. The ‘.‘ will be the work-tree /a/path.
Since git 1.8.5, you also have the -C option:
git -C /path/to/my/repo add .
Again, you can execute it anywhere you want, but the command will internally do a cd /path/to/my/repo first, and then execute the add .. That means the ‘.‘ will actually be /path/to/my/repo.
Finally, since git 2.5, a git repo supports multiple working trees, so you may execute your command in a folder which does not include a subfolder .git (but actually a kind of symbolic link to /path/to/my/repo/git)