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88e7fdf2 JH |
1 | gitattributes(5) |
2 | ================ | |
3 | ||
4 | NAME | |
5 | ---- | |
6 | gitattributes - defining attributes per path | |
7 | ||
8 | SYNOPSIS | |
9 | -------- | |
e5b5c1d2 | 10 | $GIT_DIR/info/attributes, .gitattributes |
88e7fdf2 JH |
11 | |
12 | ||
13 | DESCRIPTION | |
14 | ----------- | |
15 | ||
16 | A `gitattributes` file is a simple text file that gives | |
17 | `attributes` to pathnames. | |
18 | ||
19 | Each line in `gitattributes` file is of form: | |
20 | ||
3f74c8e8 | 21 | pattern attr1 attr2 ... |
88e7fdf2 | 22 | |
3f74c8e8 JS |
23 | That is, a pattern followed by an attributes list, |
24 | separated by whitespaces. When the pattern matches the | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
25 | path in question, the attributes listed on the line are given to |
26 | the path. | |
27 | ||
28 | Each attribute can be in one of these states for a given path: | |
29 | ||
30 | Set:: | |
31 | ||
32 | The path has the attribute with special value "true"; | |
33 | this is specified by listing only the name of the | |
34 | attribute in the attribute list. | |
35 | ||
36 | Unset:: | |
37 | ||
38 | The path has the attribute with special value "false"; | |
39 | this is specified by listing the name of the attribute | |
40 | prefixed with a dash `-` in the attribute list. | |
41 | ||
42 | Set to a value:: | |
43 | ||
44 | The path has the attribute with specified string value; | |
45 | this is specified by listing the name of the attribute | |
46 | followed by an equal sign `=` and its value in the | |
47 | attribute list. | |
48 | ||
49 | Unspecified:: | |
50 | ||
3f74c8e8 | 51 | No pattern matches the path, and nothing says if |
b9d14ffb JH |
52 | the path has or does not have the attribute, the |
53 | attribute for the path is said to be Unspecified. | |
88e7fdf2 | 54 | |
3f74c8e8 | 55 | When more than one pattern matches the path, a later line |
b9d14ffb | 56 | overrides an earlier line. This overriding is done per |
3f74c8e8 JS |
57 | attribute. The rules how the pattern matches paths are the |
58 | same as in `.gitignore` files; see linkgit:gitignore[5]. | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
59 | |
60 | When deciding what attributes are assigned to a path, git | |
61 | consults `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes` file (which has the highest | |
62 | precedence), `.gitattributes` file in the same directory as the | |
20ff3ec2 JM |
63 | path in question, and its parent directories up to the toplevel of the |
64 | work tree (the further the directory that contains `.gitattributes` | |
6df42ab9 PO |
65 | is from the path in question, the lower its precedence). Finally |
66 | global and system-wide files are considered (they have the lowest | |
67 | precedence). | |
88e7fdf2 | 68 | |
90b22907 | 69 | If you wish to affect only a single repository (i.e., to assign |
6df42ab9 PO |
70 | attributes to files that are particular to |
71 | one user's workflow for that repository), then | |
90b22907 JK |
72 | attributes should be placed in the `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes` file. |
73 | Attributes which should be version-controlled and distributed to other | |
74 | repositories (i.e., attributes of interest to all users) should go into | |
6df42ab9 PO |
75 | `.gitattributes` files. Attributes that should affect all repositories |
76 | for a single user should be placed in a file specified by the | |
77 | `core.attributesfile` configuration option (see linkgit:git-config[1]). | |
684e40f6 HKNN |
78 | Its default value is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/attributes. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME |
79 | is either not set or empty, $HOME/.config/git/attributes is used instead. | |
6df42ab9 PO |
80 | Attributes for all users on a system should be placed in the |
81 | `$(prefix)/etc/gitattributes` file. | |
90b22907 | 82 | |
88e7fdf2 | 83 | Sometimes you would need to override an setting of an attribute |
0922570c | 84 | for a path to `Unspecified` state. This can be done by listing |
88e7fdf2 JH |
85 | the name of the attribute prefixed with an exclamation point `!`. |
86 | ||
87 | ||
88 | EFFECTS | |
89 | ------- | |
90 | ||
91 | Certain operations by git can be influenced by assigning | |
ae7aa499 JH |
92 | particular attributes to a path. Currently, the following |
93 | operations are attributes-aware. | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
94 | |
95 | Checking-out and checking-in | |
96 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
97 | ||
3fed15f5 | 98 | These attributes affect how the contents stored in the |
88e7fdf2 | 99 | repository are copied to the working tree files when commands |
0b444cdb | 100 | such as 'git checkout' and 'git merge' run. They also affect how |
88e7fdf2 | 101 | git stores the contents you prepare in the working tree in the |
0b444cdb | 102 | repository upon 'git add' and 'git commit'. |
88e7fdf2 | 103 | |
5ec3e670 | 104 | `text` |
3fed15f5 JH |
105 | ^^^^^^ |
106 | ||
fd6cce9e EB |
107 | This attribute enables and controls end-of-line normalization. When a |
108 | text file is normalized, its line endings are converted to LF in the | |
109 | repository. To control what line ending style is used in the working | |
110 | directory, use the `eol` attribute for a single file and the | |
942e7747 | 111 | `core.eol` configuration variable for all text files. |
3fed15f5 | 112 | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
113 | Set:: |
114 | ||
5ec3e670 | 115 | Setting the `text` attribute on a path enables end-of-line |
fd6cce9e EB |
116 | normalization and marks the path as a text file. End-of-line |
117 | conversion takes place without guessing the content type. | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
118 | |
119 | Unset:: | |
120 | ||
5ec3e670 | 121 | Unsetting the `text` attribute on a path tells git not to |
bbb896d8 | 122 | attempt any end-of-line conversion upon checkin or checkout. |
88e7fdf2 | 123 | |
fd6cce9e | 124 | Set to string value "auto":: |
88e7fdf2 | 125 | |
5ec3e670 | 126 | When `text` is set to "auto", the path is marked for automatic |
fd6cce9e EB |
127 | end-of-line normalization. If git decides that the content is |
128 | text, its line endings are normalized to LF on checkin. | |
88e7fdf2 | 129 | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
130 | Unspecified:: |
131 | ||
942e7747 EB |
132 | If the `text` attribute is unspecified, git uses the |
133 | `core.autocrlf` configuration variable to determine if the | |
134 | file should be converted. | |
88e7fdf2 | 135 | |
5ec3e670 | 136 | Any other value causes git to act as if `text` has been left |
fd6cce9e | 137 | unspecified. |
88e7fdf2 | 138 | |
fd6cce9e EB |
139 | `eol` |
140 | ^^^^^ | |
88e7fdf2 | 141 | |
fd6cce9e EB |
142 | This attribute sets a specific line-ending style to be used in the |
143 | working directory. It enables end-of-line normalization without any | |
942e7747 | 144 | content checks, effectively setting the `text` attribute. |
88e7fdf2 | 145 | |
fd6cce9e | 146 | Set to string value "crlf":: |
88e7fdf2 | 147 | |
942e7747 EB |
148 | This setting forces git to normalize line endings for this |
149 | file on checkin and convert them to CRLF when the file is | |
150 | checked out. | |
fd6cce9e EB |
151 | |
152 | Set to string value "lf":: | |
153 | ||
154 | This setting forces git to normalize line endings to LF on | |
155 | checkin and prevents conversion to CRLF when the file is | |
942e7747 | 156 | checked out. |
5ec3e670 EB |
157 | |
158 | Backwards compatibility with `crlf` attribute | |
159 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
160 | ||
161 | For backwards compatibility, the `crlf` attribute is interpreted as | |
162 | follows: | |
163 | ||
164 | ------------------------ | |
165 | crlf text | |
166 | -crlf -text | |
167 | crlf=input eol=lf | |
168 | ------------------------ | |
fd6cce9e EB |
169 | |
170 | End-of-line conversion | |
171 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
172 | ||
173 | While git normally leaves file contents alone, it can be configured to | |
174 | normalize line endings to LF in the repository and, optionally, to | |
175 | convert them to CRLF when files are checked out. | |
176 | ||
177 | Here is an example that will make git normalize .txt, .vcproj and .sh | |
178 | files, ensure that .vcproj files have CRLF and .sh files have LF in | |
179 | the working directory, and prevent .jpg files from being normalized | |
180 | regardless of their content. | |
181 | ||
182 | ------------------------ | |
5ec3e670 | 183 | *.txt text |
fd6cce9e EB |
184 | *.vcproj eol=crlf |
185 | *.sh eol=lf | |
5ec3e670 | 186 | *.jpg -text |
fd6cce9e EB |
187 | ------------------------ |
188 | ||
189 | Other source code management systems normalize all text files in their | |
190 | repositories, and there are two ways to enable similar automatic | |
191 | normalization in git. | |
192 | ||
193 | If you simply want to have CRLF line endings in your working directory | |
194 | regardless of the repository you are working with, you can set the | |
195 | config variable "core.autocrlf" without changing any attributes. | |
196 | ||
197 | ------------------------ | |
198 | [core] | |
199 | autocrlf = true | |
200 | ------------------------ | |
201 | ||
202 | This does not force normalization of all text files, but does ensure | |
203 | that text files that you introduce to the repository have their line | |
204 | endings normalized to LF when they are added, and that files that are | |
942e7747 | 205 | already normalized in the repository stay normalized. |
fd6cce9e EB |
206 | |
207 | If you want to interoperate with a source code management system that | |
208 | enforces end-of-line normalization, or you simply want all text files | |
5ec3e670 | 209 | in your repository to be normalized, you should instead set the `text` |
fd6cce9e | 210 | attribute to "auto" for _all_ files. |
88e7fdf2 | 211 | |
fd6cce9e | 212 | ------------------------ |
5ec3e670 | 213 | * text=auto |
fd6cce9e EB |
214 | ------------------------ |
215 | ||
216 | This ensures that all files that git considers to be text will have | |
942e7747 EB |
217 | normalized (LF) line endings in the repository. The `core.eol` |
218 | configuration variable controls which line endings git will use for | |
219 | normalized files in your working directory; the default is to use the | |
220 | native line ending for your platform, or CRLF if `core.autocrlf` is | |
221 | set. | |
fd6cce9e | 222 | |
5ec3e670 | 223 | NOTE: When `text=auto` normalization is enabled in an existing |
fd6cce9e EB |
224 | repository, any text files containing CRLFs should be normalized. If |
225 | they are not they will be normalized the next time someone tries to | |
226 | change them, causing unfortunate misattribution. From a clean working | |
227 | directory: | |
228 | ||
229 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
5ec3e670 | 230 | $ echo "* text=auto" >>.gitattributes |
fd6cce9e EB |
231 | $ rm .git/index # Remove the index to force git to |
232 | $ git reset # re-scan the working directory | |
233 | $ git status # Show files that will be normalized | |
234 | $ git add -u | |
235 | $ git add .gitattributes | |
236 | $ git commit -m "Introduce end-of-line normalization" | |
237 | ------------------------------------------------- | |
238 | ||
239 | If any files that should not be normalized show up in 'git status', | |
5ec3e670 | 240 | unset their `text` attribute before running 'git add -u'. |
fd6cce9e EB |
241 | |
242 | ------------------------ | |
5ec3e670 | 243 | manual.pdf -text |
fd6cce9e | 244 | ------------------------ |
88e7fdf2 | 245 | |
fd6cce9e EB |
246 | Conversely, text files that git does not detect can have normalization |
247 | enabled manually. | |
88e7fdf2 | 248 | |
fd6cce9e | 249 | ------------------------ |
5ec3e670 | 250 | weirdchars.txt text |
fd6cce9e | 251 | ------------------------ |
88e7fdf2 | 252 | |
21e5ad50 SP |
253 | If `core.safecrlf` is set to "true" or "warn", git verifies if |
254 | the conversion is reversible for the current setting of | |
255 | `core.autocrlf`. For "true", git rejects irreversible | |
256 | conversions; for "warn", git only prints a warning but accepts | |
257 | an irreversible conversion. The safety triggers to prevent such | |
258 | a conversion done to the files in the work tree, but there are a | |
259 | few exceptions. Even though... | |
260 | ||
0b444cdb | 261 | - 'git add' itself does not touch the files in the work tree, the |
21e5ad50 SP |
262 | next checkout would, so the safety triggers; |
263 | ||
0b444cdb | 264 | - 'git apply' to update a text file with a patch does touch the files |
21e5ad50 SP |
265 | in the work tree, but the operation is about text files and CRLF |
266 | conversion is about fixing the line ending inconsistencies, so the | |
267 | safety does not trigger; | |
268 | ||
0b444cdb TR |
269 | - 'git diff' itself does not touch the files in the work tree, it is |
270 | often run to inspect the changes you intend to next 'git add'. To | |
21e5ad50 SP |
271 | catch potential problems early, safety triggers. |
272 | ||
88e7fdf2 | 273 | |
3fed15f5 JH |
274 | `ident` |
275 | ^^^^^^^ | |
276 | ||
2c850f12 JK |
277 | When the attribute `ident` is set for a path, git replaces |
278 | `$Id$` in the blob object with `$Id:`, followed by the | |
3fed15f5 JH |
279 | 40-character hexadecimal blob object name, followed by a dollar |
280 | sign `$` upon checkout. Any byte sequence that begins with | |
af9b54bb AP |
281 | `$Id:` and ends with `$` in the worktree file is replaced |
282 | with `$Id$` upon check-in. | |
3fed15f5 JH |
283 | |
284 | ||
aa4ed402 JH |
285 | `filter` |
286 | ^^^^^^^^ | |
287 | ||
c05ef938 | 288 | A `filter` attribute can be set to a string value that names a |
aa4ed402 JH |
289 | filter driver specified in the configuration. |
290 | ||
c05ef938 | 291 | A filter driver consists of a `clean` command and a `smudge` |
aa4ed402 | 292 | command, either of which can be left unspecified. Upon |
c05ef938 WC |
293 | checkout, when the `smudge` command is specified, the command is |
294 | fed the blob object from its standard input, and its standard | |
295 | output is used to update the worktree file. Similarly, the | |
296 | `clean` command is used to convert the contents of worktree file | |
297 | upon checkin. | |
aa4ed402 | 298 | |
36daaaca JB |
299 | One use of the content filtering is to massage the content into a shape |
300 | that is more convenient for the platform, filesystem, and the user to use. | |
301 | For this mode of operation, the key phrase here is "more convenient" and | |
302 | not "turning something unusable into usable". In other words, the intent | |
303 | is that if someone unsets the filter driver definition, or does not have | |
304 | the appropriate filter program, the project should still be usable. | |
305 | ||
306 | Another use of the content filtering is to store the content that cannot | |
307 | be directly used in the repository (e.g. a UUID that refers to the true | |
308 | content stored outside git, or an encrypted content) and turn it into a | |
309 | usable form upon checkout (e.g. download the external content, or decrypt | |
310 | the encrypted content). | |
311 | ||
312 | These two filters behave differently, and by default, a filter is taken as | |
313 | the former, massaging the contents into more convenient shape. A missing | |
314 | filter driver definition in the config, or a filter driver that exits with | |
315 | a non-zero status, is not an error but makes the filter a no-op passthru. | |
316 | ||
317 | You can declare that a filter turns a content that by itself is unusable | |
318 | into a usable content by setting the filter.<driver>.required configuration | |
319 | variable to `true`. | |
aa4ed402 | 320 | |
d79f5d17 NS |
321 | For example, in .gitattributes, you would assign the `filter` |
322 | attribute for paths. | |
323 | ||
324 | ------------------------ | |
325 | *.c filter=indent | |
326 | ------------------------ | |
327 | ||
328 | Then you would define a "filter.indent.clean" and "filter.indent.smudge" | |
329 | configuration in your .git/config to specify a pair of commands to | |
330 | modify the contents of C programs when the source files are checked | |
331 | in ("clean" is run) and checked out (no change is made because the | |
332 | command is "cat"). | |
333 | ||
334 | ------------------------ | |
335 | [filter "indent"] | |
336 | clean = indent | |
337 | smudge = cat | |
338 | ------------------------ | |
339 | ||
f217f0e8 EB |
340 | For best results, `clean` should not alter its output further if it is |
341 | run twice ("clean->clean" should be equivalent to "clean"), and | |
342 | multiple `smudge` commands should not alter `clean`'s output | |
343 | ("smudge->smudge->clean" should be equivalent to "clean"). See the | |
344 | section on merging below. | |
345 | ||
346 | The "indent" filter is well-behaved in this regard: it will not modify | |
347 | input that is already correctly indented. In this case, the lack of a | |
348 | smudge filter means that the clean filter _must_ accept its own output | |
349 | without modifying it. | |
350 | ||
36daaaca JB |
351 | If a filter _must_ succeed in order to make the stored contents usable, |
352 | you can declare that the filter is `required`, in the configuration: | |
353 | ||
354 | ------------------------ | |
355 | [filter "crypt"] | |
356 | clean = openssl enc ... | |
357 | smudge = openssl enc -d ... | |
358 | required | |
359 | ------------------------ | |
360 | ||
a2b665de PW |
361 | Sequence "%f" on the filter command line is replaced with the name of |
362 | the file the filter is working on. A filter might use this in keyword | |
363 | substitution. For example: | |
364 | ||
365 | ------------------------ | |
366 | [filter "p4"] | |
367 | clean = git-p4-filter --clean %f | |
368 | smudge = git-p4-filter --smudge %f | |
369 | ------------------------ | |
370 | ||
aa4ed402 JH |
371 | |
372 | Interaction between checkin/checkout attributes | |
373 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
374 | ||
375 | In the check-in codepath, the worktree file is first converted | |
376 | with `filter` driver (if specified and corresponding driver | |
377 | defined), then the result is processed with `ident` (if | |
5ec3e670 | 378 | specified), and then finally with `text` (again, if specified |
aa4ed402 JH |
379 | and applicable). |
380 | ||
381 | In the check-out codepath, the blob content is first converted | |
5ec3e670 | 382 | with `text`, and then `ident` and fed to `filter`. |
aa4ed402 JH |
383 | |
384 | ||
f217f0e8 EB |
385 | Merging branches with differing checkin/checkout attributes |
386 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
387 | ||
388 | If you have added attributes to a file that cause the canonical | |
389 | repository format for that file to change, such as adding a | |
390 | clean/smudge filter or text/eol/ident attributes, merging anything | |
391 | where the attribute is not in place would normally cause merge | |
392 | conflicts. | |
393 | ||
394 | To prevent these unnecessary merge conflicts, git can be told to run a | |
395 | virtual check-out and check-in of all three stages of a file when | |
396 | resolving a three-way merge by setting the `merge.renormalize` | |
397 | configuration variable. This prevents changes caused by check-in | |
398 | conversion from causing spurious merge conflicts when a converted file | |
399 | is merged with an unconverted file. | |
400 | ||
401 | As long as a "smudge->clean" results in the same output as a "clean" | |
402 | even on files that are already smudged, this strategy will | |
403 | automatically resolve all filter-related conflicts. Filters that do | |
404 | not act in this way may cause additional merge conflicts that must be | |
405 | resolved manually. | |
406 | ||
407 | ||
88e7fdf2 JH |
408 | Generating diff text |
409 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
410 | ||
4f73e240 JN |
411 | `diff` |
412 | ^^^^^^ | |
413 | ||
678852d9 JK |
414 | The attribute `diff` affects how 'git' generates diffs for particular |
415 | files. It can tell git whether to generate a textual patch for the path | |
416 | or to treat the path as a binary file. It can also affect what line is | |
417 | shown on the hunk header `@@ -k,l +n,m @@` line, tell git to use an | |
418 | external command to generate the diff, or ask git to convert binary | |
419 | files to a text format before generating the diff. | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
420 | |
421 | Set:: | |
422 | ||
423 | A path to which the `diff` attribute is set is treated | |
424 | as text, even when they contain byte values that | |
425 | normally never appear in text files, such as NUL. | |
426 | ||
427 | Unset:: | |
428 | ||
429 | A path to which the `diff` attribute is unset will | |
678852d9 JK |
430 | generate `Binary files differ` (or a binary patch, if |
431 | binary patches are enabled). | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
432 | |
433 | Unspecified:: | |
434 | ||
435 | A path to which the `diff` attribute is unspecified | |
436 | first gets its contents inspected, and if it looks like | |
437 | text, it is treated as text. Otherwise it would | |
438 | generate `Binary files differ`. | |
439 | ||
2cc3167c JH |
440 | String:: |
441 | ||
678852d9 JK |
442 | Diff is shown using the specified diff driver. Each driver may |
443 | specify one or more options, as described in the following | |
444 | section. The options for the diff driver "foo" are defined | |
445 | by the configuration variables in the "diff.foo" section of the | |
446 | git config file. | |
2cc3167c JH |
447 | |
448 | ||
678852d9 JK |
449 | Defining an external diff driver |
450 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
2cc3167c JH |
451 | |
452 | The definition of a diff driver is done in `gitconfig`, not | |
453 | `gitattributes` file, so strictly speaking this manual page is a | |
454 | wrong place to talk about it. However... | |
455 | ||
678852d9 | 456 | To define an external diff driver `jcdiff`, add a section to your |
2cc3167c JH |
457 | `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: |
458 | ||
459 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
460 | [diff "jcdiff"] | |
461 | command = j-c-diff | |
462 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
463 | ||
464 | When git needs to show you a diff for the path with `diff` | |
465 | attribute set to `jcdiff`, it calls the command you specified | |
466 | with the above configuration, i.e. `j-c-diff`, with 7 | |
467 | parameters, just like `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` program is called. | |
9e1f0a85 | 468 | See linkgit:git[1] for details. |
88e7fdf2 JH |
469 | |
470 | ||
ae7aa499 JH |
471 | Defining a custom hunk-header |
472 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
473 | ||
c882c01e | 474 | Each group of changes (called a "hunk") in the textual diff output |
ae7aa499 JH |
475 | is prefixed with a line of the form: |
476 | ||
477 | @@ -k,l +n,m @@ TEXT | |
478 | ||
c882c01e GD |
479 | This is called a 'hunk header'. The "TEXT" portion is by default a line |
480 | that begins with an alphabet, an underscore or a dollar sign; this | |
481 | matches what GNU 'diff -p' output uses. This default selection however | |
482 | is not suited for some contents, and you can use a customized pattern | |
483 | to make a selection. | |
ae7aa499 | 484 | |
c882c01e | 485 | First, in .gitattributes, you would assign the `diff` attribute |
ae7aa499 JH |
486 | for paths. |
487 | ||
488 | ------------------------ | |
489 | *.tex diff=tex | |
490 | ------------------------ | |
491 | ||
edb7e82f | 492 | Then, you would define a "diff.tex.xfuncname" configuration to |
ae7aa499 | 493 | specify a regular expression that matches a line that you would |
c4c86d23 JK |
494 | want to appear as the hunk header "TEXT". Add a section to your |
495 | `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: | |
ae7aa499 JH |
496 | |
497 | ------------------------ | |
498 | [diff "tex"] | |
45d9414f | 499 | xfuncname = "^(\\\\(sub)*section\\{.*)$" |
ae7aa499 JH |
500 | ------------------------ |
501 | ||
502 | Note. A single level of backslashes are eaten by the | |
503 | configuration file parser, so you would need to double the | |
504 | backslashes; the pattern above picks a line that begins with a | |
02783075 | 505 | backslash, and zero or more occurrences of `sub` followed by |
ae7aa499 JH |
506 | `section` followed by open brace, to the end of line. |
507 | ||
508 | There are a few built-in patterns to make this easier, and `tex` | |
509 | is one of them, so you do not have to write the above in your | |
510 | configuration file (you still need to enable this with the | |
d08ed6d6 GH |
511 | attribute mechanism, via `.gitattributes`). The following built in |
512 | patterns are available: | |
513 | ||
23b5beb2 GH |
514 | - `bibtex` suitable for files with BibTeX coded references. |
515 | ||
80c49c3d TR |
516 | - `cpp` suitable for source code in the C and C++ languages. |
517 | ||
b221207d PO |
518 | - `csharp` suitable for source code in the C# language. |
519 | ||
909a5494 BC |
520 | - `fortran` suitable for source code in the Fortran language. |
521 | ||
af9ce1ff AE |
522 | - `html` suitable for HTML/XHTML documents. |
523 | ||
b66e00f1 | 524 | - `java` suitable for source code in the Java language. |
d08ed6d6 | 525 | |
53b10a14 GH |
526 | - `matlab` suitable for source code in the MATLAB language. |
527 | ||
5d1e958e JS |
528 | - `objc` suitable for source code in the Objective-C language. |
529 | ||
d08ed6d6 GH |
530 | - `pascal` suitable for source code in the Pascal/Delphi language. |
531 | ||
71a5d4bc JN |
532 | - `perl` suitable for source code in the Perl language. |
533 | ||
af9ce1ff AE |
534 | - `php` suitable for source code in the PHP language. |
535 | ||
7c17205b KS |
536 | - `python` suitable for source code in the Python language. |
537 | ||
d08ed6d6 GH |
538 | - `ruby` suitable for source code in the Ruby language. |
539 | ||
540 | - `tex` suitable for source code for LaTeX documents. | |
ae7aa499 JH |
541 | |
542 | ||
80c49c3d TR |
543 | Customizing word diff |
544 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
545 | ||
882749a0 | 546 | You can customize the rules that `git diff --word-diff` uses to |
80c49c3d | 547 | split words in a line, by specifying an appropriate regular expression |
ae3b970a | 548 | in the "diff.*.wordRegex" configuration variable. For example, in TeX |
80c49c3d TR |
549 | a backslash followed by a sequence of letters forms a command, but |
550 | several such commands can be run together without intervening | |
c4c86d23 JK |
551 | whitespace. To separate them, use a regular expression in your |
552 | `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: | |
80c49c3d TR |
553 | |
554 | ------------------------ | |
555 | [diff "tex"] | |
ae3b970a | 556 | wordRegex = "\\\\[a-zA-Z]+|[{}]|\\\\.|[^\\{}[:space:]]+" |
80c49c3d TR |
557 | ------------------------ |
558 | ||
559 | A built-in pattern is provided for all languages listed in the | |
560 | previous section. | |
561 | ||
562 | ||
678852d9 JK |
563 | Performing text diffs of binary files |
564 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
565 | ||
566 | Sometimes it is desirable to see the diff of a text-converted | |
567 | version of some binary files. For example, a word processor | |
568 | document can be converted to an ASCII text representation, and | |
569 | the diff of the text shown. Even though this conversion loses | |
570 | some information, the resulting diff is useful for human | |
571 | viewing (but cannot be applied directly). | |
572 | ||
573 | The `textconv` config option is used to define a program for | |
574 | performing such a conversion. The program should take a single | |
575 | argument, the name of a file to convert, and produce the | |
576 | resulting text on stdout. | |
577 | ||
578 | For example, to show the diff of the exif information of a | |
579 | file instead of the binary information (assuming you have the | |
c4c86d23 JK |
580 | exif tool installed), add the following section to your |
581 | `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file): | |
678852d9 JK |
582 | |
583 | ------------------------ | |
584 | [diff "jpg"] | |
585 | textconv = exif | |
586 | ------------------------ | |
587 | ||
588 | NOTE: The text conversion is generally a one-way conversion; | |
589 | in this example, we lose the actual image contents and focus | |
590 | just on the text data. This means that diffs generated by | |
591 | textconv are _not_ suitable for applying. For this reason, | |
592 | only `git diff` and the `git log` family of commands (i.e., | |
593 | log, whatchanged, show) will perform text conversion. `git | |
594 | format-patch` will never generate this output. If you want to | |
595 | send somebody a text-converted diff of a binary file (e.g., | |
596 | because it quickly conveys the changes you have made), you | |
597 | should generate it separately and send it as a comment _in | |
598 | addition to_ the usual binary diff that you might send. | |
599 | ||
d9bae1a1 JK |
600 | Because text conversion can be slow, especially when doing a |
601 | large number of them with `git log -p`, git provides a mechanism | |
602 | to cache the output and use it in future diffs. To enable | |
603 | caching, set the "cachetextconv" variable in your diff driver's | |
604 | config. For example: | |
605 | ||
606 | ------------------------ | |
607 | [diff "jpg"] | |
608 | textconv = exif | |
609 | cachetextconv = true | |
610 | ------------------------ | |
611 | ||
612 | This will cache the result of running "exif" on each blob | |
613 | indefinitely. If you change the textconv config variable for a | |
614 | diff driver, git will automatically invalidate the cache entries | |
615 | and re-run the textconv filter. If you want to invalidate the | |
616 | cache manually (e.g., because your version of "exif" was updated | |
617 | and now produces better output), you can remove the cache | |
618 | manually with `git update-ref -d refs/notes/textconv/jpg` (where | |
619 | "jpg" is the name of the diff driver, as in the example above). | |
678852d9 | 620 | |
55601c6a JK |
621 | Choosing textconv versus external diff |
622 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
623 | ||
624 | If you want to show differences between binary or specially-formatted | |
625 | blobs in your repository, you can choose to use either an external diff | |
626 | command, or to use textconv to convert them to a diff-able text format. | |
627 | Which method you choose depends on your exact situation. | |
628 | ||
629 | The advantage of using an external diff command is flexibility. You are | |
630 | not bound to find line-oriented changes, nor is it necessary for the | |
631 | output to resemble unified diff. You are free to locate and report | |
632 | changes in the most appropriate way for your data format. | |
633 | ||
634 | A textconv, by comparison, is much more limiting. You provide a | |
635 | transformation of the data into a line-oriented text format, and git | |
636 | uses its regular diff tools to generate the output. There are several | |
637 | advantages to choosing this method: | |
638 | ||
639 | 1. Ease of use. It is often much simpler to write a binary to text | |
640 | transformation than it is to perform your own diff. In many cases, | |
641 | existing programs can be used as textconv filters (e.g., exif, | |
642 | odt2txt). | |
643 | ||
644 | 2. Git diff features. By performing only the transformation step | |
645 | yourself, you can still utilize many of git's diff features, | |
646 | including colorization, word-diff, and combined diffs for merges. | |
647 | ||
648 | 3. Caching. Textconv caching can speed up repeated diffs, such as those | |
649 | you might trigger by running `git log -p`. | |
650 | ||
651 | ||
ab435611 JK |
652 | Marking files as binary |
653 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
654 | ||
655 | Git usually guesses correctly whether a blob contains text or binary | |
656 | data by examining the beginning of the contents. However, sometimes you | |
657 | may want to override its decision, either because a blob contains binary | |
658 | data later in the file, or because the content, while technically | |
659 | composed of text characters, is opaque to a human reader. For example, | |
660 | many postscript files contain only ascii characters, but produce noisy | |
661 | and meaningless diffs. | |
662 | ||
663 | The simplest way to mark a file as binary is to unset the diff | |
664 | attribute in the `.gitattributes` file: | |
665 | ||
666 | ------------------------ | |
667 | *.ps -diff | |
668 | ------------------------ | |
669 | ||
670 | This will cause git to generate `Binary files differ` (or a binary | |
671 | patch, if binary patches are enabled) instead of a regular diff. | |
672 | ||
673 | However, one may also want to specify other diff driver attributes. For | |
674 | example, you might want to use `textconv` to convert postscript files to | |
675 | an ascii representation for human viewing, but otherwise treat them as | |
676 | binary files. You cannot specify both `-diff` and `diff=ps` attributes. | |
677 | The solution is to use the `diff.*.binary` config option: | |
678 | ||
679 | ------------------------ | |
680 | [diff "ps"] | |
681 | textconv = ps2ascii | |
682 | binary = true | |
683 | ------------------------ | |
684 | ||
88e7fdf2 JH |
685 | Performing a three-way merge |
686 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
687 | ||
4f73e240 JN |
688 | `merge` |
689 | ^^^^^^^ | |
690 | ||
b547ce0b | 691 | The attribute `merge` affects how three versions of a file are |
88e7fdf2 | 692 | merged when a file-level merge is necessary during `git merge`, |
57f6ec02 | 693 | and other commands such as `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`. |
88e7fdf2 JH |
694 | |
695 | Set:: | |
696 | ||
697 | Built-in 3-way merge driver is used to merge the | |
2fd02c92 | 698 | contents in a way similar to 'merge' command of `RCS` |
88e7fdf2 JH |
699 | suite. This is suitable for ordinary text files. |
700 | ||
701 | Unset:: | |
702 | ||
703 | Take the version from the current branch as the | |
704 | tentative merge result, and declare that the merge has | |
b547ce0b | 705 | conflicts. This is suitable for binary files that do |
88e7fdf2 JH |
706 | not have a well-defined merge semantics. |
707 | ||
708 | Unspecified:: | |
709 | ||
710 | By default, this uses the same built-in 3-way merge | |
b547ce0b AS |
711 | driver as is the case when the `merge` attribute is set. |
712 | However, the `merge.default` configuration variable can name | |
713 | different merge driver to be used with paths for which the | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
714 | `merge` attribute is unspecified. |
715 | ||
2cc3167c | 716 | String:: |
88e7fdf2 JH |
717 | |
718 | 3-way merge is performed using the specified custom | |
719 | merge driver. The built-in 3-way merge driver can be | |
720 | explicitly specified by asking for "text" driver; the | |
721 | built-in "take the current branch" driver can be | |
b9d14ffb | 722 | requested with "binary". |
88e7fdf2 JH |
723 | |
724 | ||
0e545f75 JH |
725 | Built-in merge drivers |
726 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
727 | ||
728 | There are a few built-in low-level merge drivers defined that | |
729 | can be asked for via the `merge` attribute. | |
730 | ||
731 | text:: | |
732 | ||
733 | Usual 3-way file level merge for text files. Conflicted | |
734 | regions are marked with conflict markers `<<<<<<<`, | |
735 | `=======` and `>>>>>>>`. The version from your branch | |
736 | appears before the `=======` marker, and the version | |
737 | from the merged branch appears after the `=======` | |
738 | marker. | |
739 | ||
740 | binary:: | |
741 | ||
742 | Keep the version from your branch in the work tree, but | |
743 | leave the path in the conflicted state for the user to | |
744 | sort out. | |
745 | ||
746 | union:: | |
747 | ||
748 | Run 3-way file level merge for text files, but take | |
749 | lines from both versions, instead of leaving conflict | |
750 | markers. This tends to leave the added lines in the | |
751 | resulting file in random order and the user should | |
752 | verify the result. Do not use this if you do not | |
753 | understand the implications. | |
754 | ||
755 | ||
88e7fdf2 JH |
756 | Defining a custom merge driver |
757 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
758 | ||
0e545f75 JH |
759 | The definition of a merge driver is done in the `.git/config` |
760 | file, not in the `gitattributes` file, so strictly speaking this | |
761 | manual page is a wrong place to talk about it. However... | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
762 | |
763 | To define a custom merge driver `filfre`, add a section to your | |
764 | `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: | |
765 | ||
766 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
767 | [merge "filfre"] | |
768 | name = feel-free merge driver | |
769 | driver = filfre %O %A %B | |
770 | recursive = binary | |
771 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
772 | ||
773 | The `merge.*.name` variable gives the driver a human-readable | |
774 | name. | |
775 | ||
776 | The `merge.*.driver` variable's value is used to construct a | |
777 | command to run to merge ancestor's version (`%O`), current | |
778 | version (`%A`) and the other branches' version (`%B`). These | |
779 | three tokens are replaced with the names of temporary files that | |
780 | hold the contents of these versions when the command line is | |
16758621 BW |
781 | built. Additionally, %L will be replaced with the conflict marker |
782 | size (see below). | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
783 | |
784 | The merge driver is expected to leave the result of the merge in | |
785 | the file named with `%A` by overwriting it, and exit with zero | |
786 | status if it managed to merge them cleanly, or non-zero if there | |
787 | were conflicts. | |
788 | ||
789 | The `merge.*.recursive` variable specifies what other merge | |
790 | driver to use when the merge driver is called for an internal | |
791 | merge between common ancestors, when there are more than one. | |
792 | When left unspecified, the driver itself is used for both | |
793 | internal merge and the final merge. | |
794 | ||
795 | ||
4c734803 JH |
796 | `conflict-marker-size` |
797 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
798 | ||
799 | This attribute controls the length of conflict markers left in | |
800 | the work tree file during a conflicted merge. Only setting to | |
801 | the value to a positive integer has any meaningful effect. | |
802 | ||
803 | For example, this line in `.gitattributes` can be used to tell the merge | |
804 | machinery to leave much longer (instead of the usual 7-character-long) | |
805 | conflict markers when merging the file `Documentation/git-merge.txt` | |
806 | results in a conflict. | |
807 | ||
808 | ------------------------ | |
809 | Documentation/git-merge.txt conflict-marker-size=32 | |
810 | ------------------------ | |
811 | ||
812 | ||
cf1b7869 JH |
813 | Checking whitespace errors |
814 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
815 | ||
816 | `whitespace` | |
817 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
818 | ||
819 | The `core.whitespace` configuration variable allows you to define what | |
2fd02c92 | 820 | 'diff' and 'apply' should consider whitespace errors for all paths in |
5162e697 | 821 | the project (See linkgit:git-config[1]). This attribute gives you finer |
cf1b7869 JH |
822 | control per path. |
823 | ||
824 | Set:: | |
825 | ||
826 | Notice all types of potential whitespace errors known to git. | |
f4b05a49 JS |
827 | The tab width is taken from the value of the `core.whitespace` |
828 | configuration variable. | |
cf1b7869 JH |
829 | |
830 | Unset:: | |
831 | ||
832 | Do not notice anything as error. | |
833 | ||
834 | Unspecified:: | |
835 | ||
f4b05a49 | 836 | Use the value of the `core.whitespace` configuration variable to |
cf1b7869 JH |
837 | decide what to notice as error. |
838 | ||
839 | String:: | |
840 | ||
841 | Specify a comma separate list of common whitespace problems to | |
f4b05a49 | 842 | notice in the same format as the `core.whitespace` configuration |
cf1b7869 JH |
843 | variable. |
844 | ||
845 | ||
8a33dd8b JH |
846 | Creating an archive |
847 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
848 | ||
08b51f51 JH |
849 | `export-ignore` |
850 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
851 | ||
852 | Files and directories with the attribute `export-ignore` won't be added to | |
853 | archive files. | |
854 | ||
8a33dd8b JH |
855 | `export-subst` |
856 | ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |
857 | ||
858 | If the attribute `export-subst` is set for a file then git will expand | |
859 | several placeholders when adding this file to an archive. The | |
08b51f51 | 860 | expansion depends on the availability of a commit ID, i.e., if |
8a33dd8b JH |
861 | linkgit:git-archive[1] has been given a tree instead of a commit or a |
862 | tag then no replacement will be done. The placeholders are the same | |
863 | as those for the option `--pretty=format:` of linkgit:git-log[1], | |
864 | except that they need to be wrapped like this: `$Format:PLACEHOLDERS$` | |
865 | in the file. E.g. the string `$Format:%H$` will be replaced by the | |
866 | commit hash. | |
867 | ||
868 | ||
975457f1 NG |
869 | Packing objects |
870 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
871 | ||
872 | `delta` | |
873 | ^^^^^^^ | |
874 | ||
875 | Delta compression will not be attempted for blobs for paths with the | |
876 | attribute `delta` set to false. | |
877 | ||
878 | ||
a2df1fb2 AG |
879 | Viewing files in GUI tools |
880 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | |
881 | ||
882 | `encoding` | |
883 | ^^^^^^^^^^ | |
884 | ||
885 | The value of this attribute specifies the character encoding that should | |
886 | be used by GUI tools (e.g. linkgit:gitk[1] and linkgit:git-gui[1]) to | |
887 | display the contents of the relevant file. Note that due to performance | |
888 | considerations linkgit:gitk[1] does not use this attribute unless you | |
889 | manually enable per-file encodings in its options. | |
890 | ||
891 | If this attribute is not set or has an invalid value, the value of the | |
892 | `gui.encoding` configuration variable is used instead | |
893 | (See linkgit:git-config[1]). | |
894 | ||
895 | ||
0922570c | 896 | USING MACRO ATTRIBUTES |
bbb896d8 JH |
897 | ---------------------- |
898 | ||
899 | You do not want any end-of-line conversions applied to, nor textual diffs | |
900 | produced for, any binary file you track. You would need to specify e.g. | |
901 | ||
902 | ------------ | |
5ec3e670 | 903 | *.jpg -text -diff |
bbb896d8 JH |
904 | ------------ |
905 | ||
906 | but that may become cumbersome, when you have many attributes. Using | |
0922570c | 907 | macro attributes, you can define an attribute that, when set, also |
98e84066 | 908 | sets or unsets a number of other attributes at the same time. The |
0922570c | 909 | system knows a built-in macro attribute, `binary`: |
bbb896d8 JH |
910 | |
911 | ------------ | |
912 | *.jpg binary | |
913 | ------------ | |
914 | ||
98e84066 | 915 | Setting the "binary" attribute also unsets the "text" and "diff" |
0922570c | 916 | attributes as above. Note that macro attributes can only be "Set", |
98e84066 MH |
917 | though setting one might have the effect of setting or unsetting other |
918 | attributes or even returning other attributes to the "Unspecified" | |
919 | state. | |
bbb896d8 JH |
920 | |
921 | ||
0922570c | 922 | DEFINING MACRO ATTRIBUTES |
bbb896d8 JH |
923 | ------------------------- |
924 | ||
0922570c MH |
925 | Custom macro attributes can be defined only in the `.gitattributes` |
926 | file at the toplevel (i.e. not in any subdirectory). The built-in | |
927 | macro attribute "binary" is equivalent to: | |
bbb896d8 JH |
928 | |
929 | ------------ | |
5ec3e670 | 930 | [attr]binary -diff -text |
bbb896d8 JH |
931 | ------------ |
932 | ||
933 | ||
88e7fdf2 JH |
934 | EXAMPLE |
935 | ------- | |
936 | ||
937 | If you have these three `gitattributes` file: | |
938 | ||
939 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
940 | (in $GIT_DIR/info/attributes) | |
941 | ||
942 | a* foo !bar -baz | |
943 | ||
944 | (in .gitattributes) | |
945 | abc foo bar baz | |
946 | ||
947 | (in t/.gitattributes) | |
948 | ab* merge=filfre | |
949 | abc -foo -bar | |
950 | *.c frotz | |
951 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
952 | ||
953 | the attributes given to path `t/abc` are computed as follows: | |
954 | ||
955 | 1. By examining `t/.gitattributes` (which is in the same | |
02783075 | 956 | directory as the path in question), git finds that the first |
88e7fdf2 JH |
957 | line matches. `merge` attribute is set. It also finds that |
958 | the second line matches, and attributes `foo` and `bar` | |
959 | are unset. | |
960 | ||
961 | 2. Then it examines `.gitattributes` (which is in the parent | |
962 | directory), and finds that the first line matches, but | |
963 | `t/.gitattributes` file already decided how `merge`, `foo` | |
964 | and `bar` attributes should be given to this path, so it | |
965 | leaves `foo` and `bar` unset. Attribute `baz` is set. | |
966 | ||
5c759f96 | 967 | 3. Finally it examines `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes`. This file |
88e7fdf2 JH |
968 | is used to override the in-tree settings. The first line is |
969 | a match, and `foo` is set, `bar` is reverted to unspecified | |
970 | state, and `baz` is unset. | |
971 | ||
02783075 | 972 | As the result, the attributes assignment to `t/abc` becomes: |
88e7fdf2 JH |
973 | |
974 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
975 | foo set to true | |
976 | bar unspecified | |
977 | baz set to false | |
978 | merge set to string value "filfre" | |
979 | frotz unspecified | |
980 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
981 | ||
982 | ||
cde15181 MH |
983 | SEE ALSO |
984 | -------- | |
985 | linkgit:git-check-attr[1]. | |
8460b2fc | 986 | |
88e7fdf2 JH |
987 | GIT |
988 | --- | |
9e1f0a85 | 989 | Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |