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). Finally 66global and system-wide files are considered (they have the lowest 67precedence). 68 69If you wish to affect only a single repository (i.e., to assign 70attributes to files that are particular to 71one user's workflow for that repository), then 72attributes should be placed in the `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes` file. 73Attributes which should be version-controlled and distributed to other 74repositories (i.e., attributes of interest to all users) should go into 75`.gitattributes` files. Attributes that should affect all repositories 76for a single user should be placed in a file specified by the 77`core.attributesfile` configuration option (see linkgit:git-config[1]). 78Attributes for all users on a system should be placed in the 79`$(prefix)/etc/gitattributes` file. 80 81Sometimes you would need to override an setting of an attribute 82for a path to `unspecified` state. This can be done by listing 83the name of the attribute prefixed with an exclamation point `!`. 84 85 86EFFECTS 87------- 88 89Certain operations by git can be influenced by assigning 90particular attributes to a path. Currently, the following 91operations are attributes-aware. 92 93Checking-out and checking-in 94~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 95 96These attributes affect how the contents stored in the 97repository are copied to the working tree files when commands 98such as 'git checkout' and 'git merge' run. They also affect how 99git stores the contents you prepare in the working tree in the 100repository upon 'git add' and 'git commit'. 101 102`text` 103^^^^^^ 104 105This attribute enables and controls end-of-line normalization. When a 106text file is normalized, its line endings are converted to LF in the 107repository. To control what line ending style is used in the working 108directory, use the `eol` attribute for a single file and the 109`core.eol` configuration variable for all text files. 110 111Set:: 112 113 Setting the `text` attribute on a path enables end-of-line 114 normalization and marks the path as a text file. End-of-line 115 conversion takes place without guessing the content type. 116 117Unset:: 118 119 Unsetting the `text` attribute on a path tells git not to 120 attempt any end-of-line conversion upon checkin or checkout. 121 122Set to string value "auto":: 123 124 When `text` is set to "auto", the path is marked for automatic 125 end-of-line normalization. If git decides that the content is 126 text, its line endings are normalized to LF on checkin. 127 128Unspecified:: 129 130 If the `text` attribute is unspecified, git uses the 131 `core.autocrlf` configuration variable to determine if the 132 file should be converted. 133 134Any other value causes git to act as if `text` has been left 135unspecified. 136 137`eol` 138^^^^^ 139 140This attribute sets a specific line-ending style to be used in the 141working directory. It enables end-of-line normalization without any 142content checks, effectively setting the `text` attribute. 143 144Set to string value "crlf":: 145 146 This setting forces git to normalize line endings for this 147 file on checkin and convert them to CRLF when the file is 148 checked out. 149 150Set to string value "lf":: 151 152 This setting forces git to normalize line endings to LF on 153 checkin and prevents conversion to CRLF when the file is 154 checked out. 155 156Backwards compatibility with `crlf` attribute 157^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 158 159For backwards compatibility, the `crlf` attribute is interpreted as 160follows: 161 162------------------------ 163crlf text 164-crlf -text 165crlf=input eol=lf 166------------------------ 167 168End-of-line conversion 169^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 170 171While git normally leaves file contents alone, it can be configured to 172normalize line endings to LF in the repository and, optionally, to 173convert them to CRLF when files are checked out. 174 175Here is an example that will make git normalize .txt, .vcproj and .sh 176files, ensure that .vcproj files have CRLF and .sh files have LF in 177the working directory, and prevent .jpg files from being normalized 178regardless of their content. 179 180------------------------ 181*.txt text 182*.vcproj eol=crlf 183*.sh eol=lf 184*.jpg -text 185------------------------ 186 187Other source code management systems normalize all text files in their 188repositories, and there are two ways to enable similar automatic 189normalization in git. 190 191If you simply want to have CRLF line endings in your working directory 192regardless of the repository you are working with, you can set the 193config variable "core.autocrlf" without changing any attributes. 194 195------------------------ 196[core] 197 autocrlf = true 198------------------------ 199 200This does not force normalization of all text files, but does ensure 201that text files that you introduce to the repository have their line 202endings normalized to LF when they are added, and that files that are 203already normalized in the repository stay normalized. 204 205If you want to interoperate with a source code management system that 206enforces end-of-line normalization, or you simply want all text files 207in your repository to be normalized, you should instead set the `text` 208attribute to "auto" for _all_ files. 209 210------------------------ 211* text=auto 212------------------------ 213 214This ensures that all files that git considers to be text will have 215normalized (LF) line endings in the repository. The `core.eol` 216configuration variable controls which line endings git will use for 217normalized files in your working directory; the default is to use the 218native line ending for your platform, or CRLF if `core.autocrlf` is 219set. 220 221NOTE: When `text=auto` normalization is enabled in an existing 222repository, any text files containing CRLFs should be normalized. If 223they are not they will be normalized the next time someone tries to 224change them, causing unfortunate misattribution. From a clean working 225directory: 226 227------------------------------------------------- 228$ echo "* text=auto" >>.gitattributes 229$ rm .git/index # Remove the index to force git to 230$ git reset # re-scan the working directory 231$ git status # Show files that will be normalized 232$ git add -u 233$ git add .gitattributes 234$ git commit -m "Introduce end-of-line normalization" 235------------------------------------------------- 236 237If any files that should not be normalized show up in 'git status', 238unset their `text` attribute before running 'git add -u'. 239 240------------------------ 241manual.pdf -text 242------------------------ 243 244Conversely, text files that git does not detect can have normalization 245enabled manually. 246 247------------------------ 248weirdchars.txt text 249------------------------ 250 251If `core.safecrlf` is set to "true" or "warn", git verifies if 252the conversion is reversible for the current setting of 253`core.autocrlf`. For "true", git rejects irreversible 254conversions; for "warn", git only prints a warning but accepts 255an irreversible conversion. The safety triggers to prevent such 256a conversion done to the files in the work tree, but there are a 257few exceptions. Even though... 258 259- 'git add' itself does not touch the files in the work tree, the 260 next checkout would, so the safety triggers; 261 262- 'git apply' to update a text file with a patch does touch the files 263 in the work tree, but the operation is about text files and CRLF 264 conversion is about fixing the line ending inconsistencies, so the 265 safety does not trigger; 266 267- 'git diff' itself does not touch the files in the work tree, it is 268 often run to inspect the changes you intend to next 'git add'. To 269 catch potential problems early, safety triggers. 270 271 272`ident` 273^^^^^^^ 274 275When the attribute `ident` is set for a path, git replaces 276`$Id$` in the blob object with `$Id:`, followed by the 27740-character hexadecimal blob object name, followed by a dollar 278sign `$` upon checkout. Any byte sequence that begins with 279`$Id:` and ends with `$` in the worktree file is replaced 280with `$Id$` upon check-in. 281 282 283`filter` 284^^^^^^^^ 285 286A `filter` attribute can be set to a string value that names a 287filter driver specified in the configuration. 288 289A filter driver consists of a `clean` command and a `smudge` 290command, either of which can be left unspecified. Upon 291checkout, when the `smudge` command is specified, the command is 292fed the blob object from its standard input, and its standard 293output is used to update the worktree file. Similarly, the 294`clean` command is used to convert the contents of worktree file 295upon checkin. 296 297A missing filter driver definition in the config is not an error 298but makes the filter a no-op passthru. 299 300The content filtering is done to massage the content into a 301shape that is more convenient for the platform, filesystem, and 302the user to use. The key phrase here is "more convenient" and not 303"turning something unusable into usable". In other words, the 304intent is that if someone unsets the filter driver definition, 305or does not have the appropriate filter program, the project 306should still be usable. 307 308For example, in .gitattributes, you would assign the `filter` 309attribute for paths. 310 311------------------------ 312*.c filter=indent 313------------------------ 314 315Then you would define a "filter.indent.clean" and "filter.indent.smudge" 316configuration in your .git/config to specify a pair of commands to 317modify the contents of C programs when the source files are checked 318in ("clean" is run) and checked out (no change is made because the 319command is "cat"). 320 321------------------------ 322[filter "indent"] 323 clean = indent 324 smudge = cat 325------------------------ 326 327For best results, `clean` should not alter its output further if it is 328run twice ("clean->clean" should be equivalent to "clean"), and 329multiple `smudge` commands should not alter `clean`'s output 330("smudge->smudge->clean" should be equivalent to "clean"). See the 331section on merging below. 332 333The "indent" filter is well-behaved in this regard: it will not modify 334input that is already correctly indented. In this case, the lack of a 335smudge filter means that the clean filter _must_ accept its own output 336without modifying it. 337 338 339Interaction between checkin/checkout attributes 340^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 341 342In the check-in codepath, the worktree file is first converted 343with `filter` driver (if specified and corresponding driver 344defined), then the result is processed with `ident` (if 345specified), and then finally with `text` (again, if specified 346and applicable). 347 348In the check-out codepath, the blob content is first converted 349with `text`, and then `ident` and fed to `filter`. 350 351 352Merging branches with differing checkin/checkout attributes 353^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 354 355If you have added attributes to a file that cause the canonical 356repository format for that file to change, such as adding a 357clean/smudge filter or text/eol/ident attributes, merging anything 358where the attribute is not in place would normally cause merge 359conflicts. 360 361To prevent these unnecessary merge conflicts, git can be told to run a 362virtual check-out and check-in of all three stages of a file when 363resolving a three-way merge by setting the `merge.renormalize` 364configuration variable. This prevents changes caused by check-in 365conversion from causing spurious merge conflicts when a converted file 366is merged with an unconverted file. 367 368As long as a "smudge->clean" results in the same output as a "clean" 369even on files that are already smudged, this strategy will 370automatically resolve all filter-related conflicts. Filters that do 371not act in this way may cause additional merge conflicts that must be 372resolved manually. 373 374 375Generating diff text 376~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 377 378`diff` 379^^^^^^ 380 381The attribute `diff` affects how 'git' generates diffs for particular 382files. It can tell git whether to generate a textual patch for the path 383or to treat the path as a binary file. It can also affect what line is 384shown on the hunk header `@@ -k,l +n,m @@` line, tell git to use an 385external command to generate the diff, or ask git to convert binary 386files to a text format before generating the diff. 387 388Set:: 389 390 A path to which the `diff` attribute is set is treated 391 as text, even when they contain byte values that 392 normally never appear in text files, such as NUL. 393 394Unset:: 395 396 A path to which the `diff` attribute is unset will 397 generate `Binary files differ` (or a binary patch, if 398 binary patches are enabled). 399 400Unspecified:: 401 402 A path to which the `diff` attribute is unspecified 403 first gets its contents inspected, and if it looks like 404 text, it is treated as text. Otherwise it would 405 generate `Binary files differ`. 406 407String:: 408 409 Diff is shown using the specified diff driver. Each driver may 410 specify one or more options, as described in the following 411 section. The options for the diff driver "foo" are defined 412 by the configuration variables in the "diff.foo" section of the 413 git config file. 414 415 416Defining an external diff driver 417^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 418 419The definition of a diff driver is done in `gitconfig`, not 420`gitattributes` file, so strictly speaking this manual page is a 421wrong place to talk about it. However... 422 423To define an external diff driver `jcdiff`, add a section to your 424`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 425 426---------------------------------------------------------------- 427[diff "jcdiff"] 428 command = j-c-diff 429---------------------------------------------------------------- 430 431When git needs to show you a diff for the path with `diff` 432attribute set to `jcdiff`, it calls the command you specified 433with the above configuration, i.e. `j-c-diff`, with 7 434parameters, just like `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` program is called. 435See linkgit:git[1] for details. 436 437 438Defining a custom hunk-header 439^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 440 441Each group of changes (called a "hunk") in the textual diff output 442is prefixed with a line of the form: 443 444 @@ -k,l +n,m @@ TEXT 445 446This is called a 'hunk header'. The "TEXT" portion is by default a line 447that begins with an alphabet, an underscore or a dollar sign; this 448matches what GNU 'diff -p' output uses. This default selection however 449is not suited for some contents, and you can use a customized pattern 450to make a selection. 451 452First, in .gitattributes, you would assign the `diff` attribute 453for paths. 454 455------------------------ 456*.tex diff=tex 457------------------------ 458 459Then, you would define a "diff.tex.xfuncname" configuration to 460specify a regular expression that matches a line that you would 461want to appear as the hunk header "TEXT". Add a section to your 462`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 463 464------------------------ 465[diff "tex"] 466 xfuncname = "^(\\\\(sub)*section\\{.*)$" 467------------------------ 468 469Note. A single level of backslashes are eaten by the 470configuration file parser, so you would need to double the 471backslashes; the pattern above picks a line that begins with a 472backslash, and zero or more occurrences of `sub` followed by 473`section` followed by open brace, to the end of line. 474 475There are a few built-in patterns to make this easier, and `tex` 476is one of them, so you do not have to write the above in your 477configuration file (you still need to enable this with the 478attribute mechanism, via `.gitattributes`). The following built in 479patterns are available: 480 481- `bibtex` suitable for files with BibTeX coded references. 482 483- `cpp` suitable for source code in the C and C++ languages. 484 485- `csharp` suitable for source code in the C# language. 486 487- `fortran` suitable for source code in the Fortran language. 488 489- `html` suitable for HTML/XHTML documents. 490 491- `java` suitable for source code in the Java language. 492 493- `objc` suitable for source code in the Objective-C language. 494 495- `pascal` suitable for source code in the Pascal/Delphi language. 496 497- `php` suitable for source code in the PHP language. 498 499- `python` suitable for source code in the Python language. 500 501- `ruby` suitable for source code in the Ruby language. 502 503- `tex` suitable for source code for LaTeX documents. 504 505 506Customizing word diff 507^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 508 509You can customize the rules that `git diff --word-diff` uses to 510split words in a line, by specifying an appropriate regular expression 511in the "diff.*.wordRegex" configuration variable. For example, in TeX 512a backslash followed by a sequence of letters forms a command, but 513several such commands can be run together without intervening 514whitespace. To separate them, use a regular expression in your 515`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 516 517------------------------ 518[diff "tex"] 519 wordRegex = "\\\\[a-zA-Z]+|[{}]|\\\\.|[^\\{}[:space:]]+" 520------------------------ 521 522A built-in pattern is provided for all languages listed in the 523previous section. 524 525 526Performing text diffs of binary files 527^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 528 529Sometimes it is desirable to see the diff of a text-converted 530version of some binary files. For example, a word processor 531document can be converted to an ASCII text representation, and 532the diff of the text shown. Even though this conversion loses 533some information, the resulting diff is useful for human 534viewing (but cannot be applied directly). 535 536The `textconv` config option is used to define a program for 537performing such a conversion. The program should take a single 538argument, the name of a file to convert, and produce the 539resulting text on stdout. 540 541For example, to show the diff of the exif information of a 542file instead of the binary information (assuming you have the 543exif tool installed), add the following section to your 544`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file): 545 546------------------------ 547[diff "jpg"] 548 textconv = exif 549------------------------ 550 551NOTE: The text conversion is generally a one-way conversion; 552in this example, we lose the actual image contents and focus 553just on the text data. This means that diffs generated by 554textconv are _not_ suitable for applying. For this reason, 555only `git diff` and the `git log` family of commands (i.e., 556log, whatchanged, show) will perform text conversion. `git 557format-patch` will never generate this output. If you want to 558send somebody a text-converted diff of a binary file (e.g., 559because it quickly conveys the changes you have made), you 560should generate it separately and send it as a comment _in 561addition to_ the usual binary diff that you might send. 562 563Because text conversion can be slow, especially when doing a 564large number of them with `git log -p`, git provides a mechanism 565to cache the output and use it in future diffs. To enable 566caching, set the "cachetextconv" variable in your diff driver's 567config. For example: 568 569------------------------ 570[diff "jpg"] 571 textconv = exif 572 cachetextconv = true 573------------------------ 574 575This will cache the result of running "exif" on each blob 576indefinitely. If you change the textconv config variable for a 577diff driver, git will automatically invalidate the cache entries 578and re-run the textconv filter. If you want to invalidate the 579cache manually (e.g., because your version of "exif" was updated 580and now produces better output), you can remove the cache 581manually with `git update-ref -d refs/notes/textconv/jpg` (where 582"jpg" is the name of the diff driver, as in the example above). 583 584Performing a three-way merge 585~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 586 587`merge` 588^^^^^^^ 589 590The attribute `merge` affects how three versions of a file is 591merged when a file-level merge is necessary during `git merge`, 592and other commands such as `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`. 593 594Set:: 595 596 Built-in 3-way merge driver is used to merge the 597 contents in a way similar to 'merge' command of `RCS` 598 suite. This is suitable for ordinary text files. 599 600Unset:: 601 602 Take the version from the current branch as the 603 tentative merge result, and declare that the merge has 604 conflicts. This is suitable for binary files that does 605 not have a well-defined merge semantics. 606 607Unspecified:: 608 609 By default, this uses the same built-in 3-way merge 610 driver as is the case the `merge` attribute is set. 611 However, `merge.default` configuration variable can name 612 different merge driver to be used for paths to which the 613 `merge` attribute is unspecified. 614 615String:: 616 617 3-way merge is performed using the specified custom 618 merge driver. The built-in 3-way merge driver can be 619 explicitly specified by asking for "text" driver; the 620 built-in "take the current branch" driver can be 621 requested with "binary". 622 623 624Built-in merge drivers 625^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 626 627There are a few built-in low-level merge drivers defined that 628can be asked for via the `merge` attribute. 629 630text:: 631 632 Usual 3-way file level merge for text files. Conflicted 633 regions are marked with conflict markers `<<<<<<<`, 634 `=======` and `>>>>>>>`. The version from your branch 635 appears before the `=======` marker, and the version 636 from the merged branch appears after the `=======` 637 marker. 638 639binary:: 640 641 Keep the version from your branch in the work tree, but 642 leave the path in the conflicted state for the user to 643 sort out. 644 645union:: 646 647 Run 3-way file level merge for text files, but take 648 lines from both versions, instead of leaving conflict 649 markers. This tends to leave the added lines in the 650 resulting file in random order and the user should 651 verify the result. Do not use this if you do not 652 understand the implications. 653 654 655Defining a custom merge driver 656^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 657 658The definition of a merge driver is done in the `.git/config` 659file, not in the `gitattributes` file, so strictly speaking this 660manual page is a wrong place to talk about it. However... 661 662To define a custom merge driver `filfre`, add a section to your 663`$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this: 664 665---------------------------------------------------------------- 666[merge "filfre"] 667 name = feel-free merge driver 668 driver = filfre %O %A %B 669 recursive = binary 670---------------------------------------------------------------- 671 672The `merge.*.name` variable gives the driver a human-readable 673name. 674 675The `merge.*.driver` variable's value is used to construct a 676command to run to merge ancestor's version (`%O`), current 677version (`%A`) and the other branches' version (`%B`). These 678three tokens are replaced with the names of temporary files that 679hold the contents of these versions when the command line is 680built. Additionally, %L will be replaced with the conflict marker 681size (see below). 682 683The merge driver is expected to leave the result of the merge in 684the file named with `%A` by overwriting it, and exit with zero 685status if it managed to merge them cleanly, or non-zero if there 686were conflicts. 687 688The `merge.*.recursive` variable specifies what other merge 689driver to use when the merge driver is called for an internal 690merge between common ancestors, when there are more than one. 691When left unspecified, the driver itself is used for both 692internal merge and the final merge. 693 694 695`conflict-marker-size` 696^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 697 698This attribute controls the length of conflict markers left in 699the work tree file during a conflicted merge. Only setting to 700the value to a positive integer has any meaningful effect. 701 702For example, this line in `.gitattributes` can be used to tell the merge 703machinery to leave much longer (instead of the usual 7-character-long) 704conflict markers when merging the file `Documentation/git-merge.txt` 705results in a conflict. 706 707------------------------ 708Documentation/git-merge.txt conflict-marker-size=32 709------------------------ 710 711 712Checking whitespace errors 713~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 714 715`whitespace` 716^^^^^^^^^^^^ 717 718The `core.whitespace` configuration variable allows you to define what 719'diff' and 'apply' should consider whitespace errors for all paths in 720the project (See linkgit:git-config[1]). This attribute gives you finer 721control per path. 722 723Set:: 724 725 Notice all types of potential whitespace errors known to git. 726 727Unset:: 728 729 Do not notice anything as error. 730 731Unspecified:: 732 733 Use the value of `core.whitespace` configuration variable to 734 decide what to notice as error. 735 736String:: 737 738 Specify a comma separate list of common whitespace problems to 739 notice in the same format as `core.whitespace` configuration 740 variable. 741 742 743Creating an archive 744~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 745 746`export-ignore` 747^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 748 749Files and directories with the attribute `export-ignore` won't be added to 750archive files. 751 752`export-subst` 753^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 754 755If the attribute `export-subst` is set for a file then git will expand 756several placeholders when adding this file to an archive. The 757expansion depends on the availability of a commit ID, i.e., if 758linkgit:git-archive[1] has been given a tree instead of a commit or a 759tag then no replacement will be done. The placeholders are the same 760as those for the option `--pretty=format:` of linkgit:git-log[1], 761except that they need to be wrapped like this: `$Format:PLACEHOLDERS$` 762in the file. E.g. the string `$Format:%H$` will be replaced by the 763commit hash. 764 765 766Packing objects 767~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 768 769`delta` 770^^^^^^^ 771 772Delta compression will not be attempted for blobs for paths with the 773attribute `delta` set to false. 774 775 776Viewing files in GUI tools 777~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 778 779`encoding` 780^^^^^^^^^^ 781 782The value of this attribute specifies the character encoding that should 783be used by GUI tools (e.g. linkgit:gitk[1] and linkgit:git-gui[1]) to 784display the contents of the relevant file. Note that due to performance 785considerations linkgit:gitk[1] does not use this attribute unless you 786manually enable per-file encodings in its options. 787 788If this attribute is not set or has an invalid value, the value of the 789`gui.encoding` configuration variable is used instead 790(See linkgit:git-config[1]). 791 792 793USING ATTRIBUTE MACROS 794---------------------- 795 796You do not want any end-of-line conversions applied to, nor textual diffs 797produced for, any binary file you track. You would need to specify e.g. 798 799------------ 800*.jpg -text -diff 801------------ 802 803but that may become cumbersome, when you have many attributes. Using 804attribute macros, you can specify groups of attributes set or unset at 805the same time. The system knows a built-in attribute macro, `binary`: 806 807------------ 808*.jpg binary 809------------ 810 811which is equivalent to the above. Note that the attribute macros can only 812be "Set" (see the above example that sets "binary" macro as if it were an 813ordinary attribute --- setting it in turn unsets "text" and "diff"). 814 815 816DEFINING ATTRIBUTE MACROS 817------------------------- 818 819Custom attribute macros can be defined only in the `.gitattributes` file 820at the toplevel (i.e. not in any subdirectory). The built-in attribute 821macro "binary" is equivalent to: 822 823------------ 824[attr]binary -diff -text 825------------ 826 827 828EXAMPLE 829------- 830 831If you have these three `gitattributes` file: 832 833---------------------------------------------------------------- 834(in $GIT_DIR/info/attributes) 835 836a* foo !bar -baz 837 838(in .gitattributes) 839abc foo bar baz 840 841(in t/.gitattributes) 842ab* merge=filfre 843abc -foo -bar 844*.c frotz 845---------------------------------------------------------------- 846 847the attributes given to path `t/abc` are computed as follows: 848 8491. By examining `t/.gitattributes` (which is in the same 850 directory as the path in question), git finds that the first 851 line matches. `merge` attribute is set. It also finds that 852 the second line matches, and attributes `foo` and `bar` 853 are unset. 854 8552. Then it examines `.gitattributes` (which is in the parent 856 directory), and finds that the first line matches, but 857 `t/.gitattributes` file already decided how `merge`, `foo` 858 and `bar` attributes should be given to this path, so it 859 leaves `foo` and `bar` unset. Attribute `baz` is set. 860 8613. Finally it examines `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes`. This file 862 is used to override the in-tree settings. The first line is 863 a match, and `foo` is set, `bar` is reverted to unspecified 864 state, and `baz` is unset. 865 866As the result, the attributes assignment to `t/abc` becomes: 867 868---------------------------------------------------------------- 869foo set to true 870bar unspecified 871baz set to false 872merge set to string value "filfre" 873frotz unspecified 874---------------------------------------------------------------- 875 876 877 878GIT 879--- 880Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite