On Wed, Jun 10, 2026 at 05:22:04PM -0500, Justin Tobler wrote:

On 26/06/10 08:56AM, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:

quoted

diff --git a/builtin/init-db.c b/builtin/init-db.c
index 52aa92fb0a..566732c9f4 100644
--- a/builtin/init-db.c
+++ b/builtin/init-db.c

@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ int cmd_init_db(int argc,
 	const char *template_dir = NULL;
 	char *template_dir_to_free = NULL;
 	unsigned int flags = 0;
-	int bare = is_bare_repository_cfg;
+	int bare = startup_info->force_bare_repository ? 1 : -1;

Any particular reason to continue mapping `force_bare_repository=false`
to -1? Or was this to just minimize changes?

The `-1` value doesn't mean "false", but it rather means "undecided".
The effect of this is that "core.bare" will eventually override this.

quoted

diff --git a/setup.c b/setup.c
index 71fc6b33da..2b690da8ca 100644
--- a/setup.c
+++ b/setup.c

@@ -795,10 +795,16 @@ static int check_repository_format_gently(const char *gitdir,
 		has_common = 0;
 	}
 
-	if (!has_common) {
-		if (candidate->is_bare != -1)
-			is_bare_repository_cfg = candidate->is_bare;
-	} else {
+	if (startup_info->force_bare_repository) {
+		candidate->is_bare = 1;
+		FREE_AND_NULL(candidate->work_tree);
+	} else if (has_common) {
+		/*
+		 * When sharing a common dir with another repository (e.g. a
+		 * linked worktree), do not let this repository's config
+		 * dictate bareness; it is inherited from the main worktree.
+		 */
+		candidate->is_bare = -1;
 		FREE_AND_NULL(candidate->work_tree);

Previously, when there was a common dir, `candidate->work_tree` was left
untouched, but now we are expclicitly setting it. I'm not sure I fully
understand this change.

I cannot blame you. All of this logic is so unbelievably tangled and
hard to follow.

In any case, I think you might have missed the fact that we `else if`
branch is now `has_common` as compared to `!has_common`? To explain the
different cases a bit:

  - When we have `force_bare_repository` we are being told that the
    repository should be treated as bare. So we set `is_bare` and also
    clear the work tree that may have been discovered.

  - When we have a commondir we know that we're in a worktree.
    Previously we did nothing in this case, and that had the implicit
    effect that `is_bare_repository_cfg` would remain at `-1`. So to
    match that behaviour we have to also reset the candidate's bareness
    to `-1`, so that we parse it via the repository's configuration at a
    later point in time.

    The other part here is that we also reset `candidate->work_tree`.
    This is because the expectation is that `$GIT_DIR/common` should
    override any "core.worktree" settings. Quoting git-config(1):

        If GIT_COMMON_DIR environment variable is set, core.worktree is
        ignored and not used for determining the root of working tree.

  - When we don't have a commondir we previosuly had to also adapt the
    global `is_bare_repository_cfg` variable. This part is not necessary
    anymore, so we basically just drop this case altogether.

Patrick