---whitespace=<option>::
- When applying a patch, detect a new or modified line
- that ends with trailing whitespaces (this includes a
- line that solely consists of whitespaces). By default,
- the command outputs warning messages and applies the
- patch.
- When gitlink:git-apply[1] is used for statistics and not applying a
- patch, it defaults to `nowarn`.
- You can use different `<option>` to control this
- behavior:
+--whitespace=<action>::
+ When applying a patch, detect a new or modified line that has
+ whitespace errors. What are considered whitespace errors is
+ controlled by `core.whitespace` configuration. By default,
+ trailing whitespaces (including lines that solely consist of
+ whitespaces) and a space character that is immediately followed
+ by a tab character inside the initial indent of the line are
+ considered whitespace errors.
++
+By default, the command outputs warning messages but applies the patch.
+When linkgit:git-apply[1] is used for statistics and not applying a
+patch, it defaults to `nowarn`.
++
+You can use different `<action>` to control this
+behavior: