Is there a way to get the git root directory in one command

Question

Mercurial has a way of printing the root directory  that contains  hg  via  hg root   Is there something equivalent in git to get the directory that contains the  git directory

User · Answer

This shell alias works whether you are in a git subdir, or at the top level:

alias gr='[ ! -z `git rev-parse --show-toplevel` ] && cd `git rev-parse --show-toplevel || pwd`'

updated to use modern syntax instead of backticks:

alias gr='[ ! -z $(git rev-parse --show-toplevel) ] && cd $(git rev-parse --show-toplevel || pwd)'

User · Answer

In case anyone needs a POSIX compliant way of doing this  without needing git executable   git-root     1  Path to child directory git root recurse parent           Check if cwd is a git root directory     if   -d  git objects -a -d  git refs -a -f  git HEAD     then         pwd         return 0     fi        Check if recursion should end  typically if cwd is        if      1        pwd       then         return 1     fi        Check parent directory in the same way     local cwd   pwd      cd        git root recurse parent    cwd      git root recurse parent     If you just want the functionality as part of a script  remove the shebang  and replace the last git root recurse parent line with   git root          git root recurse parent

User · Answer

alias git-root  cd   git rev-parse --git-dir    cd       Everything else fails at some point either going to the home directory or just miserably failing  This is the quickest and shortest way to get back to the GIT DIR

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If you re looking for a good alias to do this plus not blow up cd if you aren t in a git dir   alias   g  git rev-parse  amp  amp  cd    git rev-parse --show-cdup

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git-extras  adds   git root see https   github com tj git-extras blob master Commands md git-root    pwd     very-deep-from-root-directory   cd  git root    git add    amp  amp  git commit   Availability of git-extras   homebrew osx  linuxbrew linux    brew install git-extras debian ubuntu repos  https   packages debian org sid git-extras    apt-get install git-extras

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Just in case if you re feeding this path to the Git itself  use       this adds the whole working tree from any directory in the repo git add       and is equal to git add   git rev-parse --show-toplevel

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git config alias root   pwd    then you have    git root

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As others have noted  the core of the solution is to use git rev-parse --show-cdup  However  there are a few of edge cases to address    When the cwd already is the root of the working tree  the command yields an empty string  Actually it produces an empty line  but command substitution strip off the trailing line break  The final result is an empty string   Most answers suggest prepending the output with    so that an empty output becomes      before it is fed to cd  When GIT WORK TREE is set to a location that is not the parent of the cwd  the output may be an absolute pathname   Prepending    is wrong in this situation  If a    is prepended to an absolute path  it becomes a relative path  and they only refer to the same location if the cwd is the root directory of the system   The output may contain whitespace   This really only applies in the second case  but it has an easy fix  use double quotes around the command substitution  and any subsequent uses of the value     As other answers have noted  we can do cd      git rev-parse --show-cdup    but this breaks in the second edge case  and the third edge case if we leave off the double quotes    Many shells treat cd    as a no-op  so for those shells we could do cd    git rev-parse --show-cdup    the double quotes protect the empty string as an argument in the first edge case  and preserve whitespace in the third edge case   POSIX says the result of cd    is unspecified  so it may be best to avoid making this assumption   A solution that works in all of the above cases requires a test of some sort  Done explicitly  it might look like this   cdup    git rev-parse --show-cdup    amp  amp  test -n   cdup   amp  amp  cd   cdup    No cd is done for the first edge case   If it is acceptable to run cd   for the first edge case  then the conditional can be done in the expansion of the parameter   cdup    git rev-parse --show-cdup    amp  amp  cd    cdup -

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If you re already in the top-level or not in a git repository cd   git rev-parse --show-cdup  will take you home  just cd    cd     git rev-parse --show-cdup  is one way of fixing that

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I wanted to expand upon Daniel Brockman s excellent comment   Defining git config --global alias exec   exec   allows you to do things like git exec make because  as man git-config states      If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point  it will be treated as a shell command        Note that shell commands will be executed from the top-level directory of a repository  which may not necessarily be the current directory    It s also handy to know that  GIT PREFIX will be the path to the current directory relative to the top-level directory of a repository  But  knowing it is only half the battle     Shell variable expansion makes it rather hard to use  So I suggest using bash -c like so   git exec bash -c  ls -l  GIT PREFIX    other commands include   git exec pwd git exec make

User · Answer

Yes   git rev-parse --show-toplevel   If you want to replicate the Git command more directly  you can create an alias   git config --global alias root  rev-parse --show-toplevel    and now git root will function just as hg root     Note  In a submodule this will display the root directory of the submodule and not the parent repository  If you are using Git   2 13 or above  there is a way that submodules can show the superproject s root directory  If your git is older than that  see this other answer

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The man page for git-config  under Alias  says      If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point  it will be treated as a shell   command        Note that shell   commands will be executed from the top-level directory of a repository  which may not   necessarily be the current directory    So  on UNIX you can do   git config --global --add alias root   pwd

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How about  git rev-parse --git-dir     F  prog git test copyMerge dirWithConflicts gt git rev-parse --git-dir F  prog git test copyMerge  git   The --git-dir option seems to work   From git rev-parse manual page   --git-dir      Show  GIT DIR if defined else show the path to the  git directory    You can see it in action in this git setup-sh script   If you are in a submodule folder  with Git   2 13  use   git rev-parse --show-superproject-working-tree   If you are using git rev-parse --show-toplevel  make sure it is with Git 2 25   Q1 2020

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Short solutions that work with submodules  in hooks  and inside the  git directory  Here s the short answer that most will want   r   git rev-parse --git-dir   amp  amp  r   cd   r   amp  amp  pwd    amp  amp  echo    r    git       This will work anywhere in a git working tree  including inside the  git directory   but assumes that repository directory s  are called  git  which is the default   With submodules  this will go to the root of the outermost containing repository    If you want to get to the root of the current submodule use   echo   r   git rev-parse --show-toplevel   amp  amp      -n  r     amp  amp  echo   r      cd   git rev-parse --git-dir      amp  amp  pwd       To easily execute a command in your submodule root  under  alias  in your  gitconfig  add   sh     f     root   pwd    amp  amp  cd   root    git     amp  amp  git rev-parse  amp  amp  exec            f    This allows you to easily do things like git sh ag  lt string gt   Robust solution that supports differently named or external  git or  GIT DIR directories   Note that  GIT DIR may point somewhere external  and not be called  git   hence the need for further checking    Put this in your  bashrc        Print the name of the git working tree s root directory function git root       local root first commit     git displays its own error if not in a repository   root   git rev-parse --show-toplevel     return   if    -n  root     then     echo  root     return   elif      git rev-parse --is-inside-git-dir    true     then       We re inside the  git directory       Store the commit id of the first commit to compare later       It s possible that  GIT DIR points somewhere not inside the repo     first commit   git rev-list --parents HEAD   tail -1           echo   0  Can t get initial commit  2 gt  amp 1  amp  amp  false  amp  amp  return     root   git rev-parse --git-dir      amp  amp          subshell so we don t change the user s working directory       cd   root   amp  amp        if      git rev-list --parents HEAD   tail -1     first commit     then         pwd       else         echo   FUNCNAME  git directory is not inside its repository  2 gt  amp 1         false       fi         else     echo   FUNCNAME  Can t determine repository root  2 gt  amp 1     false   fi      Change working directory to git repository root function cd git root       local root   root   git root     return 1    git root will print any errors   cd   root      Execute it by typing git root  after restarting your shell  exec bash

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Has --show-toplevel only recently been added to git rev-parse or why is nobody mentioning it   From the git rev-parse man page      --show-toplevel        Show the absolute path of the top-level directory

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To calculate the absolute path of the current git root directory  say for use in a shell script  use this combination of readlink and git rev-parse   gitroot   readlink -f     git rev-parse --show-cdup     git-rev-parse --show-cdup gives you the right number of     s to get to the root from your cwd  or the empty string if you are at the root  Then prepend      to deal with the empty string case and use readlink -f to translate to a full path   You could also create a git-root command in your PATH as a shell script to apply this technique   cat  gt    bin git-root  lt  lt  EOF    bin sh -e cdup   git rev-parse --show-cdup  exec readlink -f    cdup EOF chmod 755   bin git-root    The above can be pasted into a terminal to create git-root and set execute bits  the actual script is in lines 2  3 and 4    And then you d be able to run git root to get the root of your current tree  Note that in the shell script  use  -e  to cause the shell to exit if the rev-parse fails so that you can properly get the exit status and error message if you are not in a git directory

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To amend the  git config  answer just a bit   git config --global --add alias root   pwd -P    and get the path cleaned up   Very nice

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Pre-Configured Shell Aliases in Shell Frameworks  If you use a shell framework  there might already be a shell alias available      grt in oh-my-zsh  68k   cd   git rev-parse --show-toplevel    echo         git-root in prezto  8 8k   displays the path to the working tree root    g   zimfw  1k   changes the current directory to the top level of the working tree

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Since Git 2 13 0  it supports a new option to show the path of the root project  which works even when being used from inside a submodule   git rev-parse --show-superproject-working-tree

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Had to solve this myself today  Solved it in C  as I needed it for a program  but I guess it can be esily rewritten  Consider this Public Domain   public static string GetGitRoot  string file path         file path   System IO Path GetDirectoryName  file path        while  file path    null             if  Directory Exists  System IO Path Combine  file path    git                 return file path           file path   Directory GetParent  file path  FullName              return null

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Here is a script that I ve written that handles both cases  1  repository with a workspace  2  bare repository   https   gist github com jdsumsion 6282953  git-root  executable file in your path       bin bash GIT DIR  git rev-parse --git-dir   amp  amp      if    basename  GIT DIR      git     then       handle normal git repos  with a  git dir      cd  GIT DIR      else       handle bare git repos  the repo IS a xxx git dir      cd  GIT DIR   fi   pwd     Hopefully this is helpful

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To write a simple answer here  so that we can use  git root   to do the job  simply configure your git by using  git config --global alias root  rev-parse --show-toplevel    and then you might want to add the following to your    bashrc   alias cdroot  cd   git root     so that you can just use cdroot to go to the top of your repo

[git] Is there a way to get the git root directory in one command?

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