@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 from fun import (
 					rev_parse,
 					is_git_dir,
+					read_gitfile,
 					touch
 				)
 
@@ -113,6 +114,11 @@ def __init__(self, path=None, odbt = DefaultDBType):
 				self.git_dir = gitpath
 				self._working_tree_dir = curpath
 				break
+			gitpath = read_gitfile(gitpath)
+			if gitpath:
+				self.git_dir = gitpath
+				self._working_tree_dir = curpath
+				break
 			curpath, dummy = os.path.split(curpath)
 			if not dummy:
 				break
 
@@ -30,6 +30,17 @@ def is_git_dir(d):
 				os.readlink(headref).startswith('refs'))
 	return False
 
+def read_gitfile(f):
+	""" This is taken from the git setup.c:read_gitfile function.
+	:return gitdir path or None if gitfile is invalid."""
+	
+	if not isfile(f):
+		return None
+	line = open(f, 'r').readline().rstrip()
+	if line[0:8] != 'gitdir: ':
+		return None
+	path = os.path.realpath(line[8:])
+	return path if is_git_dir(path) else None
 
 def short_to_long(odb, hexsha):
 	""":return: long hexadecimal sha1 from the given less-than-40 byte hexsha