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-rw-r--r--Documentation/gitrepository-layout.txt30
1 files changed, 21 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/gitrepository-layout.txt b/Documentation/gitrepository-layout.txt
index 9f628862b4..f0eef765b9 100644
--- a/Documentation/gitrepository-layout.txt
+++ b/Documentation/gitrepository-layout.txt
@@ -12,12 +12,24 @@ $GIT_DIR/*
DESCRIPTION
-----------
-You may find these things in your git repository (`.git`
-directory for a repository associated with your working tree, or
-`<project>.git` directory for a public 'bare' repository. It is
-also possible to have a working tree where `.git` is a plain
-ASCII file containing `gitdir: <path>`, i.e. the path to the
-real git repository).
+A Git repository comes in two different flavours:
+
+ * a `.git` directory at the root of the working tree;
+
+ * a `<project>.git` directory that is a 'bare' repository
+ (i.e. without its own working tree), that is typically used for
+ exchanging histories with others by pushing into it and fetching
+ from it.
+
+*Note*: Also you can have a plain text file `.git` at the root of
+your working tree, containing `gitdir: <path>` to point at the real
+directory that has the repository. This mechanism is often used for
+a working tree of a submodule checkout, to allow you in the
+containing superproject to `git checkout` a branch that does not
+have the submodule. The `checkout` has to remove the entire
+submodule working tree, without losing the submodule repository.
+
+These things may exist in a Git repository.
objects::
Object store associated with this repository. Usually
@@ -108,7 +120,7 @@ HEAD::
A symref (see glossary) to the `refs/heads/` namespace
describing the currently active branch. It does not mean
much if the repository is not associated with any working tree
- (i.e. a 'bare' repository), but a valid git repository
+ (i.e. a 'bare' repository), but a valid Git repository
*must* have the HEAD file; some porcelains may use it to
guess the designated "default" branch of the repository
(usually 'master'). It is legal if the named branch
@@ -131,7 +143,7 @@ branches::
and not likely to be found in modern repositories.
hooks::
- Hooks are customization scripts used by various git
+ Hooks are customization scripts used by various Git
commands. A handful of sample hooks are installed when
'git init' is run, but all of them are disabled by
default. To enable, the `.sample` suffix has to be
@@ -169,7 +181,7 @@ info/exclude::
This file, by convention among Porcelains, stores the
exclude pattern list. `.gitignore` is the per-directory
ignore file. 'git status', 'git add', 'git rm' and
- 'git clean' look at it but the core git commands do not look
+ 'git clean' look at it but the core Git commands do not look
at it. See also: linkgit:gitignore[5].
remotes::