Re: confusing GIT_DIR behavior case

"Britton Kerin" [off-list ref] writes:

   1.  GIT_DIR (and --git-dir) should make git behave exactly as if git
   was 
       wired to look for $GIT_DIR rather than '.git'.  The occurence of
       the
       GIT_DIR description in the top-level man page (for 'man git')
       seems to
       suggest that this is how things work.

That's underdescribing things.  Presense of GIT_DIR means much more than
that (e.g. you are at the top-level of the repository unless you have
WORK_TREE).

   4.  The noob docs should make some mention of this issue.

Which "noob docs" did you look at (and do you think other people would
most likely to look at)?  I think the most important description they need
is not to mess with these environment variables.  It might sometimes be
needed to move .git away from its default place (and I haven't been in
that situation yet, so you have to be more advanced than me ;-)), but if
you are doing such a non-default thing, you are certainly no longer
"noob".