Is --bare option equal to core.bare config in Git?

Question

I want to create a git repo on my server to update my website after pushing. The first step of all tutorials(such as this: http://developertheory.com/how-to-auto-deploy-apps

Answer 1

I suspect this tutorial uses git init --bare as a "clean" way to create an empty repo which cannot be mixed with the actual files:

Such a repo will contain directly the .git usual content, even after being re-configure as non-bare.
You need a non-bare repo in order for the git checkout (in the hook) to work, since you can only checkout a branch in a non-bare repo (a bare one, by definition, has no working tree).

I wouldn't recommend that method for deployment though, and I prefer:

• keeping that repo bare in order to push to it
• setting up a second repo, non-bare
• adding a post-receive hook on the first (bare) repo in order for the second one to pull from what the first one just received.

See for instance:

• "firing a git hook on the client"
• "Git checkout in post-receive hook: “Not a git repository '.'”"