Re: [PATCH 1/7] read info/{attributes,exclude} only when in repository

On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 1:16 PM, Jeff King [off-list ref] wrote:

The low-level attribute and gitignore code will try to look
in $GIT_DIR/info for any repo-level configuration files,
even if we have not actually determined that we are in a
repository (e.g., running "git grep --no-index"). In such a
case they end up looking for ".git/info/attributes", etc.

This is generally harmless, as such a file is unlikely to
exist outside of a repository, but it's still conceptually
the wrong thing to do.

Let's detect this situation explicitly and skip reading the
file (i.e., the same behavior we'd get if we were in a
repository and the file did not exist).

On the other hand, if we invoke attr machinery too early by mistake,
before setup_git_directory* is called, then we skip
.git/info/attributes file as well even though I think we should shout
"call setup_git_directory first!" so the developer can fix it.

I wonder if we should have two flags in startup_info to say "yes
setup_git_dir... has been called, you can trust
startup_info->have_repository" and "yes, i do not call setup_git_dir
on purpose, quit complaining" then we could still catch unintended
.git/info/attributes ignore while letting git grep --no-index work
correctly.
-- 
Duy