### Please describe the problem.

ref: [datalad#1713](https://github.com/datalad/datalad/issues/1713#issuecomment-368091458) so it seems to work when origin remote on http, but fails (as demoed below) for local paths (and ssh)

### What steps will reproduce the problem?

It works correctly in indirect mode (commands below are the same besides switching to direct mode in the clone, sorry for "sudo rm" but that was the fast non-datalad method to remove them ;) )

[[!format sh """
*yoh@hopa:/tmp/test-clone> cd /tmp/; sudo rm -r /tmp/test-{clone,origin}; mkdir /tmp/test-origin; cd /tmp/test-origin; git init; git annex init; echo "1" > 1; git add 1; git commit -m 'added 1'; git clone /tmp/test-origin /tmp/test-clone; echo 2 > 2; git add 2; git commit -m 'added 2'; cd /tmp/test-clone; git annex sync  --no-content --no-push --pull origin; git show
Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/test-origin/.git/
init  ok
(recording state in git...)
[master (root-commit) 2fc9be3] added 1
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 1
Cloning into '/tmp/test-clone'...
done.
[master 1caaa64] added 2
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 2
(merging origin/git-annex into git-annex...)
commit (recording state in git...)

On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
nothing to commit, working tree clean
ok
pull origin 
remote: Counting objects: 3, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), done.
From /tmp/test-origin
   2fc9be3..1caaa64  master     -> origin/master

Updating 2fc9be3..1caaa64
Fast-forward
 2 | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 2
ok
commit 1caaa64da380d82641356be46a5f6bc4b012a54d (HEAD -> master, origin/master, origin/HEAD, synced/master)
Author: Yaroslav Halchenko <debian@onerussian.com>
Date:   Fri Feb 23 14:16:43 2018 -0500

    added 2

diff --git a/2 b/2
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0cfbf08
--- /dev/null
+++ b/2
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+2

"""]]

but in direct you will see that you are still on 1:

[[!format sh """
*yoh@hopa:/tmp/test-clone> cd /tmp/; sudo rm -r /tmp/test-{clone,origin}; mkdir /tmp/test-origin; cd /tmp/test-origin; git init; git annex init; echo "1" > 1; git add 1; git commit -m 'added 1'; git clone /tmp/test-origin /tmp/test-clone; echo 2 > 2; git add 2; git commit -m 'added 2'; cd /tmp/test-clone; git annex direct; git annex sync  --no-content --no-push --pull origin; git show
Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/test-origin/.git/
init  ok
(recording state in git...)
[master (root-commit) 06b75e1] added 1
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 1
Cloning into '/tmp/test-clone'...
done.
[master e147893] added 2
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
 create mode 100644 2
(merging origin/git-annex into git-annex...)
(recording state in git...)
commit 
(recording state in git...)
On branch master
Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
nothing to commit, working tree clean
ok
direct ok
commit (recording state in git...)
ok
pull origin 
remote: Counting objects: 3, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), done.
From /tmp/test-origin
   06b75e1..e147893  master     -> origin/master
ok
commit 06b75e18594f89d5af0bc2b083a90b02dd5e3f21 (HEAD -> annex/direct/master, synced/master, master)
Author: Yaroslav Halchenko <debian@onerussian.com>
Date:   Fri Feb 23 14:18:27 2018 -0500

    added 1

diff --git a/1 b/1
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d00491f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/1
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+1

"""]]


### What version of git-annex are you using? On what operating system?

6.20180206+gitg638032f3a-1~ndall+1

[[!meta author=yoh]]
[[!tag projects/datalad]]

> [[fixed|done]] --[[Joey]]
