Repo instantiated from a bare-repository worktree incorrectly sets bare = True

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Since 3.1.58+, instantiating a git.Repo targeting a working tree folder that was created from a bare repository (via git worktree add) inherits the bare = True setting from the main repository's .git location.

This causes repo.working_tree_dir to resolve to None, which causes operations like index.add() / _entries_for_paths to fail with:
InvalidGitRepositoryError: Cannot rewrite paths without a working tree

Minimal Reproduction Example

from git import Repo
import subprocess, tempfile, os

with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdir:
    bare_path = os.path.join(tmpdir, "bare.git")
    worktree_path = os.path.join(tmpdir, "wt")
    
    # 1. Init bare repo and add a commit
    repo_bare = Repo.init(bare_path, bare=True)
    
    # 2. Add a worktree
    repo_bare.git.worktree("add", "-b", "main", worktree_path)
    
    # 3. Open worktree repo
    wt_repo = Repo(worktree_path)
    
    # Expected: wt_repo.bare is False, wt_repo.working_tree_dir is worktree_path
    # Actual: wt_repo.bare is True, wt_repo.working_tree_dir is None
    print("Is bare:", wt_repo.bare)
    print("Working tree dir:", wt_repo.working_tree_dir)

Is bare: True
Working tree dir: None

while using 3.1.57 the same code produces the correct results
Is bare: False
Working tree dir: /tmp/tmpgz7gz3y6/wt

fix: keep bare-repository worktrees non-bare (#2223)

Adding a data point in case it helps prioritize a release: this regression took down the documentation build for every project in our monorepo CI starting the day our build image picked up 3.1.61.

Our CI checks each job out as a linked worktree of a shared bare repository (git --git-dir=<bare-repo> worktree add <job-dir> <sha>), then runs mkdocs with mkdocs-git-revision-date-localized-plugin, which calls Repo(docs_dir, search_parent_directories=True).git.log(...). With 3.1.61 the worktree inherits core.bare = true from the shared repo, working_dir falls back to the common dir, and git rejects the path:

[git-revision-date-localized-plugin] Unable to read git logs of '/build/repo/<project>/docs'
git.exc.GitCommandError: Cmd('git') failed due to: exit code(128)
  cmdline: git log --date=unix --format=%at --diff-filter=r -n 1 --no-show-signature --follow --ignore-all-space --ignore-blank-lines /build/repo/<project>/docs
  stderr: 'fatal: /build/repo/<project>/docs: '/build/repo/<project>/docs' is outside repository at '/cache/repos/<hash>/.''

Minimal repro (fails on 3.1.61, passes on 3.1.60 and on current main with 180b1ff):

git init -q main && git -C main commit -q --allow-empty -m init
git clone -q --bare main bare.git
git --git-dir="$PWD/bare.git" worktree add -q --detach "$PWD/wt" HEAD
python -c "from git import Repo; r=Repo('wt'); print(r.bare, r.working_dir); r.git.log('-n','1','--','$PWD/wt')"

We have pinned GitPython!=3.1.61 for now. A 3.1.62 with #2224 would let us drop the pin. Thanks for the quick fix.

I consider this - guilting - an unnecessary escalation. Next time, start with merely asking for a release, feel free to say it would mean a lot to you, and only if that doesn't work amp up the intensity of these requests.
Probably I am talking to an agent here (markdown is very consistently used), so maybe I will put this into another place if it keeps happening.

test: cover subdirectory discovery and pathspec commands in bare-repo…

@Byron

@Byron I apologize. I'll make sure this doesn't happen again.

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Repo instantiated from a bare-repository worktree incorrectly sets `bare = True` #2223

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Repo instantiated from a bare-repository worktree incorrectly sets bare = True #2223

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christianvuerings commented on Sep 6, 2026

Byron commented on Sep 7, 2026

christianvuerings commented on Sep 7, 2026

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Repo instantiated from a bare-repository worktree incorrectly sets `bare = True` #2223