From: Phil Sainty <psainty@orcon.net.nz>
To: git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: GIT_WORK_TREE is not exported for post-checkout-hook
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:24:31 +1200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <17f331aef833b34fbddbefd66c330465@orcon.net.nz> (raw)
I have a post-checkout-hook shell script which indirectly calls
"git rev-parse --show-toplevel", and I've found that when that hook
runs for a checkout within a worktree directory, GIT_DIR is set but
GIT_WORK_TREE is not set, which leads to the CWD being returned
instead of the genuine toplevel value.
The script is seeing a GIT_DIR value like this:
GIT_DIR=/path/to/repo/.git/worktrees/name
The only other git variables in the environment are GIT_EXEC_PATH
and GIT_PREFIX.
The outcome I'm seeing is explained by
https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Environment-Variables#_repository_locations
which says:
"If --git-dir or GIT_DIR is specified but none of --work-tree,
GIT_WORK_TREE or core.worktree is specified, the current working
directory is regarded as the top level of your working tree."
The current githooks(5) man page talks about this somewhat:
"Environment variables, such as GIT_DIR, GIT_WORK_TREE, etc., are
exported so that Git commands run by the hook can correctly locate
the repository. If your hook needs to invoke Git commands in a
foreign repository or in a different working tree of the same
repository, then it should clear these environment variables so
they do not interfere with Git operations at the foreign
location."
Unsetting GIT_DIR certainly fixes the problem, but I don't think that
ought to be necessary in my case, as my hook script is calling git in
the *same* working copy where the checkout happens. It is not dealing
with "a foreign" repository [or] a different working tree".
My impression is that GIT_WORK_TREE should also be set for this hook
when dealing with a worktree. I have tested this in git version 2.34
and 2.55 (maint) and also 2.56.0.rc0.355.g945ea7012d (next).
I have only tested post-checkout-hook, so I do not know if this
applies to other hooks as well.
[System Info]
git version:
git version 2.34.1
cpu: x86_64
no commit associated with this build
sizeof-long: 8
sizeof-size_t: 8
shell-path: /bin/sh
uname: Linux 6.8.0-138-generic #138~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC
Fri Aug 7 13:43:15 UTC x86_64
compiler info: gnuc: 11.4
libc info: glibc: 2.35
$SHELL (typically, interactive shell): /bin/bash
next reply other threads:[~2026-09-15 8:50 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-09-15 8:24 Phil Sainty [this message]
2026-09-16 21:39 ` GIT_WORK_TREE is not exported for post-checkout-hook Junio C Hamano
2026-09-25 7:11 ` Phil Sainty
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