# \[PATCH\] Friendlier error message for commands that can't be run from a subdirectory.

- From: \<hidden\>
- Date: 2016-06-15 22:42:49 
- List: git
- Page: https://ratatoskr.run/git/2016/06/7294017
- Thread: https://ratatoskr.run/git/2007/01/911102/t.md

```text
Signed-off-by: Steven Grimm <redacted>
---

This doesn't fix the underlying problem (those commands ought to work
from any directory) but it is at least less baffling for the common case.
It's pretty braindead -- if you for some reason have a .git directory
inside one of your subdirectories, you'll get the old error message.

 git-sh-setup.sh |    3 +++
 1 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/git-sh-setup.sh b/git-sh-setup.sh
index 4a02b38..803a3bc 100755
--- a/git-sh-setup.sh
+++ b/git-sh-setup.sh
@@ -60,6 +60,9 @@ esac
 if [ -z "$SUBDIRECTORY_OK" ]
 then
 	: ${GIT_DIR=.git}
+	if [ ! -d "$GIT_DIR" ]; then
+		die "This command must be run from the root directory of a git repository."
+	fi
 	GIT_DIR=$(GIT_DIR="$GIT_DIR" git-rev-parse --git-dir) || exit
 else
 	GIT_DIR=$(git-rev-parse --git-dir) || exit
-- 
1.5.0.rc0.g4083
```