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
from a remote repository.
refs/replace/`<obj-sha1>`::
- records the SHA1 of the object that replaces `<obj-sha1>`.
+ records the SHA-1 of the object that replaces `<obj-sha1>`.
This is similar to info/grafts and is internally used and
maintained by linkgit:git-replace[1]. Such refs can be exchanged
between repositories while grafts are not.
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
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
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].
+info/sparse-checkout::
+ This file stores sparse checkout patterns.
+ See also: linkgit:git-read-tree[1].
+
remotes::
Stores shorthands for URL and default refnames for use
when interacting with remote repositories via 'git fetch',