1gitattributes(5) 2================ 3 4NAME 5---- 6gitattributes - defining attributes per path 7 8SYNOPSIS 9-------- 10$GIT_DIR/info/attributes, .gitattributes 11 12 13DESCRIPTION 14----------- 15 16A `gitattributes` file is a simple text file that gives 17`attributes` to pathnames. 18 19Each line in `gitattributes` file is of form: 20 21 pattern attr1 attr2 ... 22 23That is, a pattern followed by an attributes list, 24separated by whitespaces. When the pattern matches the 25path in question, the attributes listed on the line are given to 26the path. 27 28Each attribute can be in one of these states for a given path: 29 30Set:: 31 32 The path has the attribute with special value "true"; 33 this is specified by listing only the name of the 34 attribute in the attribute list. 35 36Unset:: 37 38 The path has the attribute with special value "false"; 39 this is specified by listing the name of the attribute 40 prefixed with a dash `-` in the attribute list. 41 42Set to a value:: 43 44 The path has the attribute with specified string value; 45 this is specified by listing the name of the attribute 46 followed by an equal sign `=` and its value in the 47 attribute list. 48 49Unspecified:: 50 51 No pattern matches the path, and nothing says if 52 the path has or does not have the attribute, the 53 attribute for the path is said to be Unspecified. 54 55When more than one pattern matches the path, a later line 56overrides an earlier line. This overriding is done per 57attribute. The rules how the pattern matches paths are the 58same as in `.gitignore` files; see linkgit:gitignore[5]. 59 60When deciding what attributes are assigned to a path, git 61consults `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes` file (which has the highest 62precedence), `.gitattributes` file in the same directory as the 63path in question, and its parent directories up to the toplevel of the 64work tree (the further the directory that contains `.gitattributes` 65is from the path in question, the lower its precedence). 66 67If you wish to affect only a single repository (i.e., to assign 68attributes to files that are particular to one user's workflow), then 69attributes should be placed in the `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes` file. 70Attributes which should be version-controlled and distributed to other 71repositories (i.e., attributes of interest to all users) should go into 72`.gitattributes` files. 73 74Sometimes you would need to override an setting of an attribute 75for a path to `unspecified` state. This can be done by listing 76the name of the attribute prefixed with an exclamation point `!`. 77 78 79EFFECTS 80------- 81 82Certain operations by git can be influenced by assigning 83particular attributes to a path. Currently, the following 84operations are attributes-aware. 85 86Checking-out and checking-in 87~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 88 89These attributes affect how the contents stored in the 90repository are copied to the working tree files when commands 91such as 'git checkout' and 'git merge' run. They also affect how 92git stores the contents you prepare in the working tree in the 93repository upon 'git add' and 'git commit'. 94 95`text` 96^^^^^^ 97 98This attribute enables and controls end-of-line normalization. When a 99text file is normalized, its line endings are converted to LF in the 100repository. To control what line ending style is used in the working 101directory, use the `eol` attribute for a single file and the 102`core.eol` configuration variable for all text files. 103 104Set:: 105 106 Setting the `text` attribute on a path enables end-of-line 107 normalization and marks the path as a text file. End-of-line 108 conversion takes place without guessing the content type. 109 110Unset:: 111 112 Unsetting the `text` attribute on a path tells git not to 113 attempt any end-of-line conversion upon checkin or checkout. 114 115Set to string value "auto":: 116 117 When `text` is set to "auto", the path is marked for automatic 118 end-of-line normalization. If git decides that the content is 119 text, its line endings are normalized to LF on checkin. 120 121Unspecified:: 122 123 If the `text` attribute is unspecified, git uses the 124 `core.autocrlf` configuration variable to determine if the 125 file should be converted. 126 127Any other value causes git to act as if `text` has been left 128unspecified. 129 130`eol` 131^^^^^ 132 133This attribute sets a specific line-ending style to be used in the 134working directory. It enables end-of-line normalization without any 135content checks, effectively setting the `text` attribute. 136 137Set to string value "crlf":: 138 139 This setting forces git to normalize line endings for this 140 file on checkin and convert them to CRLF when the file is 141 checked out. 142 143Set to string value "lf":: 144 145 This setting forces git to normalize line endings to LF on 146 checkin and prevents conversion to CRLF when the file is 147 checked out. 148 149Backwards compatibility with `crlf` attribute 150^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 151 152For backwards compatibility, the `crlf` attribute is interpreted as 153follows: 154 155------------------------ 156crlf text 157-crlf -text 158crlf=input eol=lf 159------------------------ 160 161End-of-line conversion 162^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 163 164While git normally leaves file contents alone, it can be configured to 165normalize line endings to LF in the repository and, optionally, to 166convert them to CRLF when files are checked out. 167 168Here is an example that will make git normalize .txt, .vcproj and .sh 169files, ensure that .vcproj files have CRLF and .sh files have LF in 170the working directory, and prevent .jpg files from being normalized 171regardless of their content. 172 173------------------------ 174*.txt text 175*.vcproj eol=crlf 176*.sh eol=lf 177*.jpg -text 178------------------------ 179 180Other source code management systems normalize all text files in their 181repositories, and there are two ways to enable similar automatic 182normalization in git. 183 184If you simply want to have CRLF line endings in your working directory 185regardless of the repository you are working with, you can set the 186config variable "core.autocrlf" without changing any attributes. 187 188------------------------ 189[core] 190 autocrlf = true 191------------------------ 192 193This does not force normalization of all text files, but does ensure 194that text files that you introduce to the repository have their line 195endings normalized to LF when they are added, and that files that are 196already normalized in the repository stay normalized. 197 198If you want to interoperate with a source code management system that 199enforces end-of-line normalization, or you simply want all text files 200in your repository to be normalized, you should instead set the `text` 201attribute to "auto" for _all_ files. 202 203------------------------ 204* text=auto 205------------------------ 206 207This ensures that all files that git considers to be text will have 208normalized (LF) line endings in the repository. The `core.eol` 209configuration variable controls which line endings git will use for 210normalized files in your working directory; the default is to use the 211native line ending for your platform, or CRLF if `core.autocrlf` is 212set. 213 214NOTE: When `text=auto` normalization is enabled in an existing 215repository, any text files containing CRLFs should be normalized. If 216they are not they will be normalized the next time someone tries to 217change them, causing unfortunate misattribution. From a clean working 218directory: 219 220------------------------------------------------- 221$ echo "* text=auto" >>.gitattributes 222$ rm .git/index # Remove the index to force git to 223$ git reset # re-scan the working directory 224$ git status # Show files that will be normalized 225$ git add -u 226$ git add .gitattributes 227$ git commit -m "Introduce end-of-line normalization" 228------------------------------------------------- 229 230If any files that should not be normalized show up in 'git status', 231unset their `text` attribute before running 'git add -u'. 232 233------------------------ 234manual.pdf -text 235------------------------ 236 237Conversely, text files that git does not detect can have normalization 238enabled manually. 239 240------------------------ 241weirdchars.txt text 242------------------------ 243 244If `core.safecrlf` is set to "true" or "warn", git verifies if 245the conversion is reversible for the current setting of 246`core.autocrlf`. For "true", git rejects irreversible 247conversions; for "warn", git only prints a warning but accepts 248an irreversible conversion. The safety triggers to prevent such 249a conversion done to the files in the work tree, but there are a 250few exceptions. Even though... 251 252- 'git add' itself does not touch the files in the work tree, the 253 next checkout would, so the safety triggers; 254 255- 'git apply' to update a text file with a patch does touch the files 256 in the work tree, but the operation is about text files and CRLF 257 conversion is about fixing the line ending inconsistencies, so the 258 safety does not trigger; 259 260- 'git diff' itself does not touch the files in the work tree, it is 261 often run to inspect the changes you intend to next 'git add'. To 262 catch potential problems early, safety triggers. 263 264 265`ident` 266^^^^^^^ 267 268When the attribute `ident` is set for a path, git replaces 269`$Id$` in the blob object with `$Id:`, followed by the 27040-character hexadecimal blob object name, followed by a dollar 271sign `$` upon checkout. Any byte sequence that begins with 272`$Id:` and ends with `$` in the worktree file is replaced 273with `$Id$` upon check-in. 274 275 276`filter` 277^^^^^^^^ 278 279A `filter` attribute can be set to a string value that names a 280filter driver specified in the configuration. 281 282A filter driver consists of a `clean` command and a `smudge` 283command, either of which can be left unspecified. Upon 284checkout, when the `smudge` command is specified, the command is 285fed the blob object from its standard input, and its standard 286output is used to update the worktree file. Similarly, the 287`clean` command is used to convert the contents of worktree file 288upon checkin. 289 290A missing filter driver definition in the config is not an error 291but makes the filter a no-op passthru. 292 293The content filtering is done to massage the content into a 294shape that is more convenient for the platform, filesystem, and 295the user to use. The key phrase here is "more convenient" and not 296"turning something unusable into usable". In other words, the 297intent is that if someone unsets the filter driver definition, 298or does not have the appropriate filter program, the project 299should still be usable. 300 301For example, in .gitattributes, you would assign the `filter` 302attribute for paths. 303 304------------------------ 305*.c filter=indent 306------------------------ 307 308Then you would define a "filter.indent.clean" and "filter.indent.smudge" 309configuration in your .git/config to specify a pair of commands to 310modify the contents of C programs when the source files are checked 311in ("clean" is run) and checked out (no change is made because the 312command is "cat"). 313 314------------------------ 315[filter "indent"] 316 clean = indent 317 smudge = cat 318------------------------ 319 320 321Interaction between checkin/checkout attributes 322^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 323 324In the check-in codepath, the worktree file is first converted 325with `filter` driver (if specified and corresponding driver 326defined), then the result is processed with `ident` (if 327specified), and then finally with `text` (again, if specified 328and applicable). 329 330In the check-out codepath, the blob content is first converted 331with `text`, and then `ident` and fed to `filter`. 332 333 334Generating diff text 335~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 336 337`diff` 338^^^^^^ 339 340The attribute `diff` affects how 'git' generates diffs for particular 341files. It can tell git whether to generate a textual patch for the path 342or to treat the path as a binary file. It can also affect what line is 343shown on the hunk header `@@ -k,l +n,m @@` line, tell git to use an 344external command to generate the diff, or ask git to convert binary 345files to a text format before generating the diff. 346 347Set:: 348 349 A path to which the `diff` attribute is set is treated 350 as text, even when they contain byte values that 351 normally never appear in text files, such as NUL. 352 353Unset:: 354 355 A path to which the `diff` attribute is unset will 356 generate `Binary files differ` (or a binary patch, if 357 binary patches are enabled). 358 359Unspecified:: 360 361 A path to which the `diff` attribute is unspecified 362 first gets its contents inspected, and if it looks like 363 text, it is treated as text. Otherwise it would 364 generate `Binary files differ`. 365 366String:: 367 368 Diff is shown using the specified diff driver. Each driver may 369 specify one or more options, as described in the following 370 section. The options for the diff driver "foo" are defined 371 by the configuration variables in the "diff.foo" section of the 372 git config file. 373 374 375Defining an external diff driver 376^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 377 378The definition of a diff driver is done in `gitconfig`, not 379`gitattributes` file, so strictly speaking this manual page is a 380wrong place to talk about it. However... 381 382To define an external diff driver `jcdiff`, add a section to your 383`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 384 385---------------------------------------------------------------- 386[diff "jcdiff"] 387 command = j-c-diff 388---------------------------------------------------------------- 389 390When git needs to show you a diff for the path with `diff` 391attribute set to `jcdiff`, it calls the command you specified 392with the above configuration, i.e. `j-c-diff`, with 7 393parameters, just like `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` program is called. 394See linkgit:git[1] for details. 395 396 397Defining a custom hunk-header 398^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 399 400Each group of changes (called a "hunk") in the textual diff output 401is prefixed with a line of the form: 402 403 @@ -k,l +n,m @@ TEXT 404 405This is called a 'hunk header'. The "TEXT" portion is by default a line 406that begins with an alphabet, an underscore or a dollar sign; this 407matches what GNU 'diff -p' output uses. This default selection however 408is not suited for some contents, and you can use a customized pattern 409to make a selection. 410 411First, in .gitattributes, you would assign the `diff` attribute 412for paths. 413 414------------------------ 415*.tex diff=tex 416------------------------ 417 418Then, you would define a "diff.tex.xfuncname" configuration to 419specify a regular expression that matches a line that you would 420want to appear as the hunk header "TEXT". Add a section to your 421`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 422 423------------------------ 424[diff "tex"] 425 xfuncname = "^(\\\\(sub)*section\\{.*)$" 426------------------------ 427 428Note. A single level of backslashes are eaten by the 429configuration file parser, so you would need to double the 430backslashes; the pattern above picks a line that begins with a 431backslash, and zero or more occurrences of `sub` followed by 432`section` followed by open brace, to the end of line. 433 434There are a few built-in patterns to make this easier, and `tex` 435is one of them, so you do not have to write the above in your 436configuration file (you still need to enable this with the 437attribute mechanism, via `.gitattributes`). The following built in 438patterns are available: 439 440- `bibtex` suitable for files with BibTeX coded references. 441 442- `cpp` suitable for source code in the C and C++ languages. 443 444- `csharp` suitable for source code in the C# language. 445 446- `html` suitable for HTML/XHTML documents. 447 448- `java` suitable for source code in the Java language. 449 450- `objc` suitable for source code in the Objective-C language. 451 452- `pascal` suitable for source code in the Pascal/Delphi language. 453 454- `php` suitable for source code in the PHP language. 455 456- `python` suitable for source code in the Python language. 457 458- `ruby` suitable for source code in the Ruby language. 459 460- `tex` suitable for source code for LaTeX documents. 461 462 463Customizing word diff 464^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 465 466You can customize the rules that `git diff --word-diff` uses to 467split words in a line, by specifying an appropriate regular expression 468in the "diff.*.wordRegex" configuration variable. For example, in TeX 469a backslash followed by a sequence of letters forms a command, but 470several such commands can be run together without intervening 471whitespace. To separate them, use a regular expression in your 472`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 473 474------------------------ 475[diff "tex"] 476 wordRegex = "\\\\[a-zA-Z]+|[{}]|\\\\.|[^\\{}[:space:]]+" 477------------------------ 478 479A built-in pattern is provided for all languages listed in the 480previous section. 481 482 483Performing text diffs of binary files 484^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 485 486Sometimes it is desirable to see the diff of a text-converted 487version of some binary files. For example, a word processor 488document can be converted to an ASCII text representation, and 489the diff of the text shown. Even though this conversion loses 490some information, the resulting diff is useful for human 491viewing (but cannot be applied directly). 492 493The `textconv` config option is used to define a program for 494performing such a conversion. The program should take a single 495argument, the name of a file to convert, and produce the 496resulting text on stdout. 497 498For example, to show the diff of the exif information of a 499file instead of the binary information (assuming you have the 500exif tool installed), add the following section to your 501`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file): 502 503------------------------ 504[diff "jpg"] 505 textconv = exif 506------------------------ 507 508NOTE: The text conversion is generally a one-way conversion; 509in this example, we lose the actual image contents and focus 510just on the text data. This means that diffs generated by 511textconv are _not_ suitable for applying. For this reason, 512only `git diff` and the `git log` family of commands (i.e., 513log, whatchanged, show) will perform text conversion. `git 514format-patch` will never generate this output. If you want to 515send somebody a text-converted diff of a binary file (e.g., 516because it quickly conveys the changes you have made), you 517should generate it separately and send it as a comment _in 518addition to_ the usual binary diff that you might send. 519 520Because text conversion can be slow, especially when doing a 521large number of them with `git log -p`, git provides a mechanism 522to cache the output and use it in future diffs. To enable 523caching, set the "cachetextconv" variable in your diff driver's 524config. For example: 525 526------------------------ 527[diff "jpg"] 528 textconv = exif 529 cachetextconv = true 530------------------------ 531 532This will cache the result of running "exif" on each blob 533indefinitely. If you change the textconv config variable for a 534diff driver, git will automatically invalidate the cache entries 535and re-run the textconv filter. If you want to invalidate the 536cache manually (e.g., because your version of "exif" was updated 537and now produces better output), you can remove the cache 538manually with `git update-ref -d refs/notes/textconv/jpg` (where 539"jpg" is the name of the diff driver, as in the example above). 540 541Performing a three-way merge 542~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 543 544`merge` 545^^^^^^^ 546 547The attribute `merge` affects how three versions of a file is 548merged when a file-level merge is necessary during `git merge`, 549and other commands such as `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`. 550 551Set:: 552 553 Built-in 3-way merge driver is used to merge the 554 contents in a way similar to 'merge' command of `RCS` 555 suite. This is suitable for ordinary text files. 556 557Unset:: 558 559 Take the version from the current branch as the 560 tentative merge result, and declare that the merge has 561 conflicts. This is suitable for binary files that does 562 not have a well-defined merge semantics. 563 564Unspecified:: 565 566 By default, this uses the same built-in 3-way merge 567 driver as is the case the `merge` attribute is set. 568 However, `merge.default` configuration variable can name 569 different merge driver to be used for paths to which the 570 `merge` attribute is unspecified. 571 572String:: 573 574 3-way merge is performed using the specified custom 575 merge driver. The built-in 3-way merge driver can be 576 explicitly specified by asking for "text" driver; the 577 built-in "take the current branch" driver can be 578 requested with "binary". 579 580 581Built-in merge drivers 582^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 583 584There are a few built-in low-level merge drivers defined that 585can be asked for via the `merge` attribute. 586 587text:: 588 589 Usual 3-way file level merge for text files. Conflicted 590 regions are marked with conflict markers `<<<<<<<`, 591 `=======` and `>>>>>>>`. The version from your branch 592 appears before the `=======` marker, and the version 593 from the merged branch appears after the `=======` 594 marker. 595 596binary:: 597 598 Keep the version from your branch in the work tree, but 599 leave the path in the conflicted state for the user to 600 sort out. 601 602union:: 603 604 Run 3-way file level merge for text files, but take 605 lines from both versions, instead of leaving conflict 606 markers. This tends to leave the added lines in the 607 resulting file in random order and the user should 608 verify the result. Do not use this if you do not 609 understand the implications. 610 611 612Defining a custom merge driver 613^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 614 615The definition of a merge driver is done in the `.git/config` 616file, not in the `gitattributes` file, so strictly speaking this 617manual page is a wrong place to talk about it. However... 618 619To define a custom merge driver `filfre`, add a section to your 620`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 621 622---------------------------------------------------------------- 623[merge "filfre"] 624 name = feel-free merge driver 625 driver = filfre %O %A %B 626 recursive = binary 627---------------------------------------------------------------- 628 629The `merge.*.name` variable gives the driver a human-readable 630name. 631 632The `merge.*.driver` variable's value is used to construct a 633command to run to merge ancestor's version (`%O`), current 634version (`%A`) and the other branches' version (`%B`). These 635three tokens are replaced with the names of temporary files that 636hold the contents of these versions when the command line is 637built. Additionally, %L will be replaced with the conflict marker 638size (see below). 639 640The merge driver is expected to leave the result of the merge in 641the file named with `%A` by overwriting it, and exit with zero 642status if it managed to merge them cleanly, or non-zero if there 643were conflicts. 644 645The `merge.*.recursive` variable specifies what other merge 646driver to use when the merge driver is called for an internal 647merge between common ancestors, when there are more than one. 648When left unspecified, the driver itself is used for both 649internal merge and the final merge. 650 651 652`conflict-marker-size` 653^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 654 655This attribute controls the length of conflict markers left in 656the work tree file during a conflicted merge. Only setting to 657the value to a positive integer has any meaningful effect. 658 659For example, this line in `.gitattributes` can be used to tell the merge 660machinery to leave much longer (instead of the usual 7-character-long) 661conflict markers when merging the file `Documentation/git-merge.txt` 662results in a conflict. 663 664------------------------ 665Documentation/git-merge.txt conflict-marker-size=32 666------------------------ 667 668 669Checking whitespace errors 670~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 671 672`whitespace` 673^^^^^^^^^^^^ 674 675The `core.whitespace` configuration variable allows you to define what 676'diff' and 'apply' should consider whitespace errors for all paths in 677the project (See linkgit:git-config[1]). This attribute gives you finer 678control per path. 679 680Set:: 681 682 Notice all types of potential whitespace errors known to git. 683 684Unset:: 685 686 Do not notice anything as error. 687 688Unspecified:: 689 690 Use the value of `core.whitespace` configuration variable to 691 decide what to notice as error. 692 693String:: 694 695 Specify a comma separate list of common whitespace problems to 696 notice in the same format as `core.whitespace` configuration 697 variable. 698 699 700Creating an archive 701~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 702 703`export-ignore` 704^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 705 706Files and directories with the attribute `export-ignore` won't be added to 707archive files. 708 709`export-subst` 710^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 711 712If the attribute `export-subst` is set for a file then git will expand 713several placeholders when adding this file to an archive. The 714expansion depends on the availability of a commit ID, i.e., if 715linkgit:git-archive[1] has been given a tree instead of a commit or a 716tag then no replacement will be done. The placeholders are the same 717as those for the option `--pretty=format:` of linkgit:git-log[1], 718except that they need to be wrapped like this: `$Format:PLACEHOLDERS$` 719in the file. E.g. the string `$Format:%H$` will be replaced by the 720commit hash. 721 722 723Packing objects 724~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 725 726`delta` 727^^^^^^^ 728 729Delta compression will not be attempted for blobs for paths with the 730attribute `delta` set to false. 731 732 733Viewing files in GUI tools 734~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 735 736`encoding` 737^^^^^^^^^^ 738 739The value of this attribute specifies the character encoding that should 740be used by GUI tools (e.g. linkgit:gitk[1] and linkgit:git-gui[1]) to 741display the contents of the relevant file. Note that due to performance 742considerations linkgit:gitk[1] does not use this attribute unless you 743manually enable per-file encodings in its options. 744 745If this attribute is not set or has an invalid value, the value of the 746`gui.encoding` configuration variable is used instead 747(See linkgit:git-config[1]). 748 749 750USING ATTRIBUTE MACROS 751---------------------- 752 753You do not want any end-of-line conversions applied to, nor textual diffs 754produced for, any binary file you track. You would need to specify e.g. 755 756------------ 757*.jpg -text -diff 758------------ 759 760but that may become cumbersome, when you have many attributes. Using 761attribute macros, you can specify groups of attributes set or unset at 762the same time. The system knows a built-in attribute macro, `binary`: 763 764------------ 765*.jpg binary 766------------ 767 768which is equivalent to the above. Note that the attribute macros can only 769be "Set" (see the above example that sets "binary" macro as if it were an 770ordinary attribute --- setting it in turn unsets "text" and "diff"). 771 772 773DEFINING ATTRIBUTE MACROS 774------------------------- 775 776Custom attribute macros can be defined only in the `.gitattributes` file 777at the toplevel (i.e. not in any subdirectory). The built-in attribute 778macro "binary" is equivalent to: 779 780------------ 781[attr]binary -diff -text 782------------ 783 784 785EXAMPLE 786------- 787 788If you have these three `gitattributes` file: 789 790---------------------------------------------------------------- 791(in $GIT_DIR/info/attributes) 792 793a* foo !bar -baz 794 795(in .gitattributes) 796abc foo bar baz 797 798(in t/.gitattributes) 799ab* merge=filfre 800abc -foo -bar 801*.c frotz 802---------------------------------------------------------------- 803 804the attributes given to path `t/abc` are computed as follows: 805 8061. By examining `t/.gitattributes` (which is in the same 807 directory as the path in question), git finds that the first 808 line matches. `merge` attribute is set. It also finds that 809 the second line matches, and attributes `foo` and `bar` 810 are unset. 811 8122. Then it examines `.gitattributes` (which is in the parent 813 directory), and finds that the first line matches, but 814 `t/.gitattributes` file already decided how `merge`, `foo` 815 and `bar` attributes should be given to this path, so it 816 leaves `foo` and `bar` unset. Attribute `baz` is set. 817 8183. Finally it examines `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes`. This file 819 is used to override the in-tree settings. The first line is 820 a match, and `foo` is set, `bar` is reverted to unspecified 821 state, and `baz` is unset. 822 823As the result, the attributes assignment to `t/abc` becomes: 824 825---------------------------------------------------------------- 826foo set to true 827bar unspecified 828baz set to false 829merge set to string value "filfre" 830frotz unspecified 831---------------------------------------------------------------- 832 833 834 835GIT 836--- 837Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite