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\\{.*)$" 426------------------------ 427 428Note. A single level of backslashes are eaten by the 429configuration file parser, so you would need to double the 430backslashes; the pattern above picks a line that begins with a 431backslash, and zero or more occurrences of `sub` followed by 432`section` followed by open brace, to the end of line. 433 434There are a few built-in patterns to make this easier, and `tex` 435is one of them, so you do not have to write the above in your 436configuration file (you still need to enable this with the 437attribute mechanism, via `.gitattributes`). The following built in 438patterns are available: 439 440- `bibtex` suitable for files with BibTeX coded references. 441 442- `cpp` suitable for source code in the C and C++ languages. 443 444- `html` suitable for HTML/XHTML documents. 445 446- `java` suitable for source code in the Java language. 447 448- `objc` suitable for source code in the Objective-C language. 449 450- `pascal` suitable for source code in the Pascal/Delphi language. 451 452- `php` suitable for source code in the PHP language. 453 454- `python` suitable for source code in the Python language. 455 456- `ruby` suitable for source code in the Ruby language. 457 458- `tex` suitable for source code for LaTeX documents. 459 460 461Customizing word diff 462^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 463 464You can customize the rules that `git diff --word-diff` uses to 465split words in a line, by specifying an appropriate regular expression 466in the "diff.*.wordRegex" configuration variable. For example, in TeX 467a backslash followed by a sequence of letters forms a command, but 468several such commands can be run together without intervening 469whitespace. To separate them, use a regular expression in your 470`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 471 472------------------------ 473[diff "tex"] 474 wordRegex = "\\\\[a-zA-Z]+|[{}]|\\\\.|[^\\{}[:space:]]+" 475------------------------ 476 477A built-in pattern is provided for all languages listed in the 478previous section. 479 480 481Performing text diffs of binary files 482^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 483 484Sometimes it is desirable to see the diff of a text-converted 485version of some binary files. For example, a word processor 486document can be converted to an ASCII text representation, and 487the diff of the text shown. Even though this conversion loses 488some information, the resulting diff is useful for human 489viewing (but cannot be applied directly). 490 491The `textconv` config option is used to define a program for 492performing such a conversion. The program should take a single 493argument, the name of a file to convert, and produce the 494resulting text on stdout. 495 496For example, to show the diff of the exif information of a 497file instead of the binary information (assuming you have the 498exif tool installed), add the following section to your 499`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file): 500 501------------------------ 502[diff "jpg"] 503 textconv = exif 504------------------------ 505 506NOTE: The text conversion is generally a one-way conversion; 507in this example, we lose the actual image contents and focus 508just on the text data. This means that diffs generated by 509textconv are _not_ suitable for applying. For this reason, 510only `git diff` and the `git log` family of commands (i.e., 511log, whatchanged, show) will perform text conversion. `git 512format-patch` will never generate this output. If you want to 513send somebody a text-converted diff of a binary file (e.g., 514because it quickly conveys the changes you have made), you 515should generate it separately and send it as a comment _in 516addition to_ the usual binary diff that you might send. 517 518Because text conversion can be slow, especially when doing a 519large number of them with `git log -p`, git provides a mechanism 520to cache the output and use it in future diffs. To enable 521caching, set the "cachetextconv" variable in your diff driver's 522config. For example: 523 524------------------------ 525[diff "jpg"] 526 textconv = exif 527 cachetextconv = true 528------------------------ 529 530This will cache the result of running "exif" on each blob 531indefinitely. If you change the textconv config variable for a 532diff driver, git will automatically invalidate the cache entries 533and re-run the textconv filter. If you want to invalidate the 534cache manually (e.g., because your version of "exif" was updated 535and now produces better output), you can remove the cache 536manually with `git update-ref -d refs/notes/textconv/jpg` (where 537"jpg" is the name of the diff driver, as in the example above). 538 539Performing a three-way merge 540~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 541 542`merge` 543^^^^^^^ 544 545The attribute `merge` affects how three versions of a file is 546merged when a file-level merge is necessary during `git merge`, 547and other commands such as `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`. 548 549Set:: 550 551 Built-in 3-way merge driver is used to merge the 552 contents in a way similar to 'merge' command of `RCS` 553 suite. This is suitable for ordinary text files. 554 555Unset:: 556 557 Take the version from the current branch as the 558 tentative merge result, and declare that the merge has 559 conflicts. This is suitable for binary files that does 560 not have a well-defined merge semantics. 561 562Unspecified:: 563 564 By default, this uses the same built-in 3-way merge 565 driver as is the case the `merge` attribute is set. 566 However, `merge.default` configuration variable can name 567 different merge driver to be used for paths to which the 568 `merge` attribute is unspecified. 569 570String:: 571 572 3-way merge is performed using the specified custom 573 merge driver. The built-in 3-way merge driver can be 574 explicitly specified by asking for "text" driver; the 575 built-in "take the current branch" driver can be 576 requested with "binary". 577 578 579Built-in merge drivers 580^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 581 582There are a few built-in low-level merge drivers defined that 583can be asked for via the `merge` attribute. 584 585text:: 586 587 Usual 3-way file level merge for text files. Conflicted 588 regions are marked with conflict markers `<<<<<<<`, 589 `=======` and `>>>>>>>`. The version from your branch 590 appears before the `=======` marker, and the version 591 from the merged branch appears after the `=======` 592 marker. 593 594binary:: 595 596 Keep the version from your branch in the work tree, but 597 leave the path in the conflicted state for the user to 598 sort out. 599 600union:: 601 602 Run 3-way file level merge for text files, but take 603 lines from both versions, instead of leaving conflict 604 markers. This tends to leave the added lines in the 605 resulting file in random order and the user should 606 verify the result. Do not use this if you do not 607 understand the implications. 608 609 610Defining a custom merge driver 611^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 612 613The definition of a merge driver is done in the `.git/config` 614file, not in the `gitattributes` file, so strictly speaking this 615manual page is a wrong place to talk about it. However... 616 617To define a custom merge driver `filfre`, add a section to your 618`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 619 620---------------------------------------------------------------- 621[merge "filfre"] 622 name = feel-free merge driver 623 driver = filfre %O %A %B 624 recursive = binary 625---------------------------------------------------------------- 626 627The `merge.*.name` variable gives the driver a human-readable 628name. 629 630The `merge.*.driver` variable's value is used to construct a 631command to run to merge ancestor's version (`%O`), current 632version (`%A`) and the other branches' version (`%B`). These 633three tokens are replaced with the names of temporary files that 634hold the contents of these versions when the command line is 635built. Additionally, %L will be replaced with the conflict marker 636size (see below). 637 638The merge driver is expected to leave the result of the merge in 639the file named with `%A` by overwriting it, and exit with zero 640status if it managed to merge them cleanly, or non-zero if there 641were conflicts. 642 643The `merge.*.recursive` variable specifies what other merge 644driver to use when the merge driver is called for an internal 645merge between common ancestors, when there are more than one. 646When left unspecified, the driver itself is used for both 647internal merge and the final merge. 648 649 650`conflict-marker-size` 651^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 652 653This attribute controls the length of conflict markers left in 654the work tree file during a conflicted merge. Only setting to 655the value to a positive integer has any meaningful effect. 656 657For example, this line in `.gitattributes` can be used to tell the merge 658machinery to leave much longer (instead of the usual 7-character-long) 659conflict markers when merging the file `Documentation/git-merge.txt` 660results in a conflict. 661 662------------------------ 663Documentation/git-merge.txt conflict-marker-size=32 664------------------------ 665 666 667Checking whitespace errors 668~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 669 670`whitespace` 671^^^^^^^^^^^^ 672 673The `core.whitespace` configuration variable allows you to define what 674'diff' and 'apply' should consider whitespace errors for all paths in 675the project (See linkgit:git-config[1]). This attribute gives you finer 676control per path. 677 678Set:: 679 680 Notice all types of potential whitespace errors known to git. 681 682Unset:: 683 684 Do not notice anything as error. 685 686Unspecified:: 687 688 Use the value of `core.whitespace` configuration variable to 689 decide what to notice as error. 690 691String:: 692 693 Specify a comma separate list of common whitespace problems to 694 notice in the same format as `core.whitespace` configuration 695 variable. 696 697 698Creating an archive 699~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 700 701`export-ignore` 702^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 703 704Files and directories with the attribute `export-ignore` won't be added to 705archive files. 706 707`export-subst` 708^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 709 710If the attribute `export-subst` is set for a file then git will expand 711several placeholders when adding this file to an archive. The 712expansion depends on the availability of a commit ID, i.e., if 713linkgit:git-archive[1] has been given a tree instead of a commit or a 714tag then no replacement will be done. The placeholders are the same 715as those for the option `--pretty=format:` of linkgit:git-log[1], 716except that they need to be wrapped like this: `$Format:PLACEHOLDERS$` 717in the file. E.g. the string `$Format:%H$` will be replaced by the 718commit hash. 719 720 721Packing objects 722~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 723 724`delta` 725^^^^^^^ 726 727Delta compression will not be attempted for blobs for paths with the 728attribute `delta` set to false. 729 730 731Viewing files in GUI tools 732~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 733 734`encoding` 735^^^^^^^^^^ 736 737The value of this attribute specifies the character encoding that should 738be used by GUI tools (e.g. linkgit:gitk[1] and linkgit:git-gui[1]) to 739display the contents of the relevant file. Note that due to performance 740considerations linkgit:gitk[1] does not use this attribute unless you 741manually enable per-file encodings in its options. 742 743If this attribute is not set or has an invalid value, the value of the 744`gui.encoding` configuration variable is used instead 745(See linkgit:git-config[1]). 746 747 748USING ATTRIBUTE MACROS 749---------------------- 750 751You do not want any end-of-line conversions applied to, nor textual diffs 752produced for, any binary file you track. You would need to specify e.g. 753 754------------ 755*.jpg -text -diff 756------------ 757 758but that may become cumbersome, when you have many attributes. Using 759attribute macros, you can specify groups of attributes set or unset at 760the same time. The system knows a built-in attribute macro, `binary`: 761 762------------ 763*.jpg binary 764------------ 765 766which is equivalent to the above. Note that the attribute macros can only 767be "Set" (see the above example that sets "binary" macro as if it were an 768ordinary attribute --- setting it in turn unsets "text" and "diff"). 769 770 771DEFINING ATTRIBUTE MACROS 772------------------------- 773 774Custom attribute macros can be defined only in the `.gitattributes` file 775at the toplevel (i.e. not in any subdirectory). The built-in attribute 776macro "binary" is equivalent to: 777 778------------ 779[attr]binary -diff -text 780------------ 781 782 783EXAMPLE 784------- 785 786If you have these three `gitattributes` file: 787 788---------------------------------------------------------------- 789(in $GIT_DIR/info/attributes) 790 791a* foo !bar -baz 792 793(in .gitattributes) 794abc foo bar baz 795 796(in t/.gitattributes) 797ab* merge=filfre 798abc -foo -bar 799*.c frotz 800---------------------------------------------------------------- 801 802the attributes given to path `t/abc` are computed as follows: 803 8041. By examining `t/.gitattributes` (which is in the same 805 directory as the path in question), git finds that the first 806 line matches. `merge` attribute is set. It also finds that 807 the second line matches, and attributes `foo` and `bar` 808 are unset. 809 8102. Then it examines `.gitattributes` (which is in the parent 811 directory), and finds that the first line matches, but 812 `t/.gitattributes` file already decided how `merge`, `foo` 813 and `bar` attributes should be given to this path, so it 814 leaves `foo` and `bar` unset. Attribute `baz` is set. 815 8163. Finally it examines `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes`. This file 817 is used to override the in-tree settings. The first line is 818 a match, and `foo` is set, `bar` is reverted to unspecified 819 state, and `baz` is unset. 820 821As the result, the attributes assignment to `t/abc` becomes: 822 823---------------------------------------------------------------- 824foo set to true 825bar unspecified 826baz set to false 827merge set to string value "filfre" 828frotz unspecified 829---------------------------------------------------------------- 830 831 832 833GIT 834--- 835Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite