On Tue, Feb 03, 2015 at 08:14:06AM -0500, Michaël Fortin wrote: > Repo1 has the following pre-commit hook: > > #!/bin/bash > git -C "../Repo2" status --porcelain > > I then commit in Repo1 using the following (this is actually ran by a > GUI, I have no control over the commands themselves): > > git add --force -- MyNewFile > git commit -m "My message" -o -- MyNewFile Because the commit command uses "-o", git must use a temporary index file to stage the commit. It sets GIT_INDEX_FILE in the environment, and then runs your hook. When the hook runs "git -C" it moves into another repository, but the GIT_INDEX_FILE in the environment takes precedence over the local index found in that repository. So you see a HEAD and working tree from Repo2, but the index from Repo1. This is a specific case of a more general problem. If you were to run git like: git --git-dir=/path/to/.git commit ... you would have similar problems. You would have $GIT_DIR set in the environment, and would see the HEAD from Repo1, but the working tree from Repo2. In other words, moving into another git directory from inside a hook is not as easy as just going there. You also need to clear any state from the environment. E.g., by adding this to the top of your hook: unset $(git rev-parse --local-env-vars) Should "-C" (or "--git-dir") make this easier by doing it for you? I'm not sure it is a good idea. It is right now valid to do: GIT_INDEX_FILE=/path/to/index.tmp git -C /path/to/repo ... which would break if we cleared git variables. OTOH, maybe using "-C" (instead of chdir-ing yourself) is a good indication that you want that cleared. I dunno. It is probably too late at this point, as we would be subtly breaking backwards compatibility. Perhaps it would make more sense to add a new option, so you could do: git --reset-git-vars -C ../Repo2 status --porcelain But this is a fairly obscure use case, and the rev-parse invocation above is not so bad. I think it is more about knowing that you need to use it, rather than the pain of typing it. And I am not sure how to make that more clear. Is there a specific place in the documentation you looked and might have been warned? Maybe the description for "-C" should cover this. -Peff -- 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