It seems that the fallback bare repository detection in the absence of core.bare fails for aliases. $ git init --bare foo $ cd foo $ git config alias.s 'status -sb' $ git s fatal: This operation must be run in a work tree $ sed -i -e '/bare =/d' config $ git s ## Initial commit on master ?? HEAD ?? config ?? description ?? hooks ?? info/ $ git status -sb fatal: This operation must be run in a work tree The reason I am using the fallback is to use a single bare repository with multiple working directories (via git-new-workdir) as suggested in 8fa0ee3b [1]. [1] https://github.com/git/git/commit/8fa0ee3b50736eb869a3e13375bb041c1bf5aa12 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html