To reproduce: git init testrepo cd testrepo touch test.txt mkdir sub echo 'gitdir: path/to/nowhere' >> sub/.git git gui Displays no files/changes, no error message. Should display test.txt in git-gui. Or possibly fail with error (though git status does not fail). Shell should display error message. Observed on Ubuntu 13.10 using git version 1.8.3.2 git-gui version 0.17.0 Note the same happens when writing rubbish like 'xyz' into that .git file (Violating gitfile format). Note that when trying to launch git gui from that subfolder, I get a valid error message: fatal: Not a git repository: path/to/nowhere same as when running git status I guess that git-gui tries to do something with submodules, but some failure is not handled well. regards, Thibault -- 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