What did you do before the bug happened? (Steps to reproduce your issue)
I am using a bare Git repository to manage my dotfiles, following a
common pattern where the Git directory is separate from the work tree.
Here are the exact steps to reproduce the issue:
1. Create a bare repository and set up the alias:
$ git init --bare $HOME/.dotfiles
Initialized empty Git repository in /Users/bryan/.dotfiles/
$ alias dot='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'
2. Add a remote and create initial tracked file:
$ dot remote add origin git@xxxxxxxxxx:username/dotfiles.git
$ echo "# My dotfiles" > $HOME/README.md
$ dot add $HOME/README.md
$ dot commit -m "Initial commit"
[main (root-commit) abc1234] Initial commit
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
create mode 100644 README.md
$ dot push -u origin main
Branch 'main' set up to track remote branch 'main' from 'origin'.
3. Set global Git configuration for automatic rebasing and stashing:
$ git config --global pull.rebase true
$ git config --global pull.autostash true
Verify the configuration is set:
$ git config --global pull.rebase
true
$ git config --global pull.autostash
true
4. Simulate a remote change (on another machine or via GitHub web interface):
- Edit README.md on remote to add a line: "Updated from remote"
- This creates a divergence between local and remote
5. Make local unstaged changes:
$ echo "Local change" >> $HOME/.zshrc
Verify there are unstaged changes:
$ dot status
On branch main
Changes not staged for commit:
(use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
(use "git restore <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
modified: .zshrc
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
6. Attempt to pull the remote changes:
$ dot pull
error: cannot pull with rebase: You have unstaged changes.
error: Please commit or stash them.
What did you expect to happen? (Expected behavior)
Since I have configured pull.autostash=true globally, I expected Git to:
1. Automatically create a stash of my unstaged changes (the modified
.zshrc file)
2. Pull the remote changes with rebase (as configured by pull.rebase=true)
3. Apply the stash after the pull completes successfully
4. Show output similar to:
Created autostash: abc2345
First, rewinding head to replay your work on top of it...
Fast-forwarded main to origin/main.
Applied autostash.
This is the behavior I get when using Git in a regular (non-bare)
repository with the same configuration.
What happened instead? (Actual behavior)
Git immediately fails with an error message:
error: cannot pull with rebase: You have unstaged changes.
error: Please commit or stash them.
The command exits with status code 1 and does not perform any stashing
or pulling.
What's different between what you expected and what actually happened?
The difference is that Git is not honoring the pull.autostash=true
configuration when the repository is accessed using --git-dir and
--work-tree flags. The autostash feature is completely ignored, and
Git behaves as if pull.autostash=false.
To confirm this is specific to the --git-dir/--work-tree usage
pattern, I tested the following workarounds:
1. Explicit --autostash flag works:
$ dot pull --rebase --autostash
Created autostash: def3456
Current branch main is up to date.
Applied autostash.
2. The same configuration works in a regular repository:
$ cd /tmp/test-repo
$ git init
$ git config pull.rebase true
$ git config pull.autostash true
$ echo "test" > file.txt
$ git add file.txt
$ git commit -m "test"
$ echo "change" >> file.txt
$ git pull origin main # This would autostash as expected
Additional diagnostic information:
1. The configuration is properly loaded by Git:
$ dot config --show-origin pull.autostash
file:/Users/bryan/.config/git/config true
$ dot config --show-origin pull.rebase
file:/Users/bryan/.config/git/config true
2. Even setting the configuration directly in the bare repository doesn't help:
$ dot config pull.autostash true
$ dot config pull.rebase true
$ cat $HOME/.dotfiles/config | grep -A2 "\[pull\]"
[pull]
rebase = true
autostash = true
$ dot pull
error: cannot pull with rebase: You have unstaged changes.
error: Please commit or stash them.
3. Using -c flag to override configuration inline also fails:
$ git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME -c
pull.autostash=true pull
error: cannot pull with rebase: You have unstaged changes.
error: Please commit or stash them.
4. GIT_TRACE output shows the pull command is executed but autostash
is not attempted:
$ GIT_TRACE=1 dot pull 2>&1 | head -5
11:09:57.474770 git.c:476 trace: built-in: git pull
error: cannot pull with rebase: You have unstaged changes.
error: Please commit or stash them.
This appears to be a bug where the autostash functionality is bypassed
when Git is invoked with --git-dir and --work-tree flags, possibly
because the work tree context is not properly established when the
autostash check occurs.
[System Info]
git version:
git version 2.50.1
cpu: arm64
no commit associated with this build
sizeof-long: 8
sizeof-size_t: 8
shell-path: /bin/sh
feature: fsmonitor--daemon
libcurl: 8.7.1
zlib: 1.2.12
SHA-1: SHA1_DC
SHA-256: SHA256_BLK
uname: Darwin 24.5.0 Darwin Kernel Version 24.5.0: Tue Apr 22 19:54:29
PDT 2025; root:xnu-11417.121.6~2/RELEASE_ARM64_T6030 arm64
compiler info: clang: 17.0.0 (clang-1700.0.13.3)
libc info: no libc information available
$SHELL (typically, interactive shell): /bin/zsh
