title: Can I store the .git folder outside the files I want tracked?
body: <p>I have an unusual idea to use git as a backup system. So let's say I have a directory ./backup/myfiles and I want to back that up using git. To keep things clean I don't want to have a .git directory in the myfiles folder, so I thought I could create ./backup/git_repos/myfiles. From looking at the git docs, I've tried doing this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ cd backup/myfiles
  $ mkdir ../git_repos/myfiles
  $ git --git-dir=../git_repos/myfiles init
  Initialized empty Git repository in backup/git_repos/myfiles/
  $ git --git-dir="../git_repos/myfiles/" add foo
  fatal: pathspec 'foo' did not match any files
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>You can see the error message I get there. What am I doing wrong?</p>