@@ -35,8 +35,8 @@
                     rev_parse,
                     is_git_dir,
                     find_git_dir,
-                    touch
-					read_gitfile,
+                    read_gitfile,
+                    touch,
 				)
 
 import os
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ def __init__(self, path=None, odbt=DefaultDBType):
                 self.git_dir = gitpath
                 self._working_tree_dir = curpath
                 break
-            gitpath = read_gitfile(gitpath)
+            gitpath = read_gitfile(curpath)
             if gitpath:
                 self.git_dir = gitpath
                 self._working_tree_dir = curpath
 
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@
                         )
 from string import digits
 
-__all__ = ('rev_parse', 'is_git_dir', 'touch')
+__all__ = ('rev_parse', 'is_git_dir', 'touch', 'read_gitfile', 'find_git_dir', 'name_to_object', 
+           'short_to_long', 'deref_tag', 'to_commit')
 
 
 def touch(filename):
@@ -46,16 +47,20 @@ def find_git_dir(d):
     return None
 
 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
+    """ This is taken from the git setup.c:read_gitfile function.
+    :return gitdir path or None if gitfile is invalid."""
+    if f is None:
+        return None
+    try:
+       line = open(f, 'r').readline().rstrip()
+    except (OSError, IOError):
+        # File might not exist or is unreadable - ignore
+        return None
+    # end handle file access
+    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