Why is the .git dir in a different GIT_DIR! branch?

Question

Why is the .git repository not part of any branch? When I create new git hooks are they not tracked within git itself?

https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=%5Bgit%5D+track+hooks – phd Apr 09 '19 at 13:19 — phd, Apr 09 '19 at 13:19

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 09 '19 at 12:29

It is a special directory that Git ignores in a repository, as it contains the information about the repository itself.

So no, hooks that you place is .git/hooks are not tracked within your project.

However, you can for example do the following:

In your project, create a hooks directory and place them here. Then, in .git/hooks create the hooks a symbolic links pointing towards those in your repo. It'd look as follow:

├── .git
│   ├── config
│   ├── HEAD
│   ├── hooks
│   │   └── pre-commit -> ../../hooks/pre-commit
│   ├── objects
│   │   ├── info
│   │   └── pack
│   └── refs
│       ├── heads
│       └── tags
└── hooks
    └── pre-commit

So you can keep them versioned within your project.

If you want to have more global hooks to use across repositories, you can use templates, I wrote an article about how to set it up: https://www.ghislain-rodrigues.fr/articles/git-hooks-template.html

The `.git` directory **is** the repository. – axiac Apr 09 '19 at 12:29 — axiac, Apr 09 '19 at 12:29
Yes, that's actually better phrased, thanks. – padawin Apr 09 '19 at 12:30 — padawin, Apr 09 '19 at 12:30

Why is the .git dir in a different GIT_DIR! branch?

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