From 00c0c4c061a10e64ba20340af0ecdea1e9398453 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Stefan Haller <stefan@haller-berlin.de>
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2026 10:20:22 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Demonstrate that the recent repos menu can't read a
 submodule's branch

The menu shows "Branch unknown" for every submodule, whatever it has
checked out. A submodule has no .git directory; its .git is a file
naming the directory, and for a submodule git writes that name relative
to the submodule. We hand it to os.ReadFile unchanged, so it resolves
against lazygit's own working directory and the read fails. A worktree
created with --relative-paths (or with worktree.useRelativePaths set)
gets a relative name too, and fails the same way.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 .../controllers/helpers/repos_helper_test.go  | 28 +++++++++++++++++++
 .../tests/misc/recent_repos_branch_column.go  | 11 +++++++-
 2 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/pkg/gui/controllers/helpers/repos_helper_test.go b/pkg/gui/controllers/helpers/repos_helper_test.go
index be36a7f58..55e0508bd 100644
--- a/pkg/gui/controllers/helpers/repos_helper_test.go
+++ b/pkg/gui/controllers/helpers/repos_helper_test.go
@@ -46,6 +46,34 @@ func TestReadHeadInfo(t *testing.T) {
 			expected:   headInfo{branch: "mybranch"},
 			expectedOk: true,
 		},
+		{
+			name: "worktree whose .git file names the git dir relatively",
+			files: map[string]string{
+				"repo/.git/worktrees/wt/HEAD": "ref: refs/heads/mybranch\n",
+				"wt/.git":                     "gitdir: ../repo/.git/worktrees/wt\n",
+			},
+			/* EXPECTED:
+			repoPath:   "wt",
+			expected:   headInfo{branch: "mybranch"},
+			expectedOk: true,
+			ACTUAL: */
+			repoPath:   "wt",
+			expectedOk: false,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "submodule, whose .git file always names the git dir relatively",
+			files: map[string]string{
+				"repo/.git/modules/sub/HEAD": "ref: refs/heads/mybranch\n",
+				"repo/sub/.git":              "gitdir: ../.git/modules/sub\n",
+			},
+			/* EXPECTED:
+			repoPath:   "repo/sub",
+			expected:   headInfo{branch: "mybranch"},
+			expectedOk: true,
+			ACTUAL: */
+			repoPath:   "repo/sub",
+			expectedOk: false,
+		},
 		{
 			name:       "directory without a .git entry",
 			repoPath:   "notarepo",
diff --git a/pkg/integration/tests/misc/recent_repos_branch_column.go b/pkg/integration/tests/misc/recent_repos_branch_column.go
index 77562102b..9c0257edb 100644
--- a/pkg/integration/tests/misc/recent_repos_branch_column.go
+++ b/pkg/integration/tests/misc/recent_repos_branch_column.go
@@ -19,13 +19,18 @@ var RecentReposBranchColumn = NewIntegrationTest(NewIntegrationTestArgs{
 		current, _ := filepath.Abs(".")
 		onBranch, _ := filepath.Abs("../on-branch")
 		detached, _ := filepath.Abs("../detached")
-		cfg.GetAppState().RecentRepos = []string{current, onBranch, detached}
+		submodule, _ := filepath.Abs("sub")
+		cfg.GetAppState().RecentRepos = []string{current, onBranch, detached, submodule}
 	},
 	SetupRepo: func(shell *Shell) {
 		shell.EmptyCommit("one")
 		shell.CloneNonBare("on-branch")
 		shell.CloneNonBare("detached")
 		shell.RunCommand([]string{"git", "-C", "../detached", "checkout", "--detach"})
+		shell.CloneIntoSubmodule("submodule", "sub")
+		shell.GitAddAll()
+		shell.Commit("add submodule")
+		shell.RunCommand([]string{"git", "-C", "sub", "checkout", "--detach"})
 	},
 	Run: func(t *TestDriver, keys config.KeybindingConfig) {
 		t.ExpectPopup().Menu().
@@ -33,6 +38,10 @@ var RecentReposBranchColumn = NewIntegrationTest(NewIntegrationTestArgs{
 			Lines(
 				Contains("on-branch").Contains("master").IsSelected(),
 				Contains("detached").MatchesRegexp(`HEAD detached at [0-9a-f]{8}`),
+				/* EXPECTED:
+				Contains("sub").MatchesRegexp(`HEAD detached at [0-9a-f]{8}`),
+				ACTUAL: */
+				Contains("sub").Contains("Branch unknown"),
 				Contains("Cancel"),
 			).
 			Cancel()