How to use Git worktree on host-guest file system in virtual machine

Question

I'm opening a new worktree in my local repository in Windows, and can't compile it in my Linux virtual machine, because the ".git" contains a full path starting with "C:/Git" that the virtual machine does not recognize.

I have a git repository that I often need to cross-compile on both Windows and Linux. I originally cloned the repository in my windows system and mounted my "C:" drive as a shared file system in a virtual Ubuntu machine. This usually works perfectly fine.

When attempting to open a new worktree in git, the linked repository doesn't have it's own ".git" folder, but rather a link to the original repository's ".git" folder, and this is saved as an absolute path, in the following format:

gitdir: C:/Git/...

When attempting to run:

git rev-parse

I get the following message:

fatal: not a git repository: /mnt/hgfs/WindowsDriveC/Git/WorktreeDir/C:/Git/OriginalGitDir/.git/worktrees/WorktreeDir

Due to this limitation, several of my scripts fail.

Is there any way to "trick" Linux into recognizing the full path and properly identifying the original git repo?

Answer 1

Typically, doing this kind of thing is discouraged because it can lead to corruption, and as you've seen the Windows paths don't play well with the Linux paths.

However, that being said, there are a couple of options. One is to set up the worktree under Cygwin or Windows Subsystem for Linux and share it. That will still result in a path that doesn't exist on the Linux VM, but it would be possible to create a symlink from /cygdrive/c or /mnt/c to /mnt/hgfs/WindowsDriveC and then the rest of the stuff would work.

Another option is just to use Windows Subsystem for Linux, which means that you can do your compilation and produce Windows binaries without leaving Windows. You'd produce Linux binaries, but you wouldn't have to worry about sharing with the VM. The worktree would need to be created under WSL, though.

A final option is to edit the .git file in the worktree to use a relative path to the main repository. This is unsupported and might break, but then again it might work for your needs. Be sure to use forward slashes for that purpose.