Thomas Braun <thomas.braun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > I've encountered an oddity with git describe. > Consider the following snippet: > ----- > mkdir test > cd test > git init > echo 1 > file > git add file > git commit -m "changes" > $ git describe --always --dirty > 8ad486e > $ cd .. > $ git --git-dir=test/.git describe --always --dirty > 8ad486e-dirty > $ GIT_DIR=test/.git git describe --always --dirty > 8ad486e-dirty > ----- > > The "-dirty" suffix appears if invoking git not from the worktree > itself, but should actually never appear. This is not oddity with describe. You are using --git-dir incorrectly. When you tell Git where its repository resides with the $GIT_DIR environment variable or the --git-dir command-line option, unless you tell it where the top-level of your working tree is, you are telling that your current working directory is the top-level of your working tree. You are asking "git describe" to describe the state of the HEAD including the dirtyness of the working tree in various ways. With the first invocation, you do not tell Git where things are and let it correctly figure it out, i.e. you are in 'test' directory and relative to where you are, ".git" is the repository and "." is the top of the working tree. The commit recorded in the ".git/HEAD", i.e. 8ad486e, is used, and its compared with the working tree to determine dirtiness. Specifically, the blob object 8ad486e:file is the same as "./file" (that is "test/file" relative to where you started with "mkdir test" above). With the latter two, you are asking the same question but you go one level up and then tell Git that the repository is "test/.git" (correct) and the top of the working tree is "." (a lie). Again, "test/.git/HEAD" records the same commit, but when trying to compare the contents of its tree, e.g. "file" at the top-level in the commit, you do not have "file" in the working tree. Git is led to believe that you removed "file", hence your working tree state is dirty. Make it a habit to always specify GIT_WORK_TREE when you use GIT_DIR, unless you know you will always start from the top of the working tree. -- 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