"text" (i.e. be subjected to the autocrlf mechanism) is
decided purely based on the contents.
+core.safecrlf::
+ If true, makes git check if converting `CRLF` as controlled by
+ `core.autocrlf` is reversible. Git will verify if a command
+ modifies a file in the work tree either directly or indirectly.
+ For example, committing a file followed by checking out the
+ same file should yield the original file in the work tree. If
+ this is not the case for the current setting of
+ `core.autocrlf`, git will reject the file. The variable can
+ be set to "warn", in which case git will only warn about an
+ irreversible conversion but continue the operation.
++
+CRLF conversion bears a slight chance of corrupting data.
+autocrlf=true will convert CRLF to LF during commit and LF to
+CRLF during checkout. A file that contains a mixture of LF and
+CRLF before the commit cannot be recreated by git. For text
+files this is the right thing to do: it corrects line endings
+such that we have only LF line endings in the repository.
+But for binary files that are accidentally classified as text the
+conversion can corrupt data.
++
+If you recognize such corruption early you can easily fix it by
+setting the conversion type explicitly in .gitattributes. Right
+after committing you still have the original file in your work
+tree and this file is not yet corrupted. You can explicitly tell
+git that this file is binary and git will handle the file
+appropriately.
++
+Unfortunately, the desired effect of cleaning up text files with
+mixed line endings and the undesired effect of corrupting binary
+files cannot be distinguished. In both cases CRLFs are removed
+in an irreversible way. For text files this is the right thing
+to do because CRLFs are line endings, while for binary files
+converting CRLFs corrupts data.
++
+Note, this safety check does not mean that a checkout will generate a
+file identical to the original file for a different setting of
+`core.autocrlf`, but only for the current one. For example, a text
+file with `LF` would be accepted with `core.autocrlf=input` and could
+later be checked out with `core.autocrlf=true`, in which case the
+resulting file would contain `CRLF`, although the original file
+contained `LF`. However, in both work trees the line endings would be
+consistent, that is either all `LF` or all `CRLF`, but never mixed. A
+file with mixed line endings would be reported by the `core.safecrlf`
+mechanism.
+
core.symlinks::
If false, symbolic links are checked out as small plain files that
contain the link text. linkgit:git-update-index[1] and
so that linkgit:git-pull[1] will appropriately merge from that
remote branch. Note that even if this option is not set,
this behavior can be chosen per-branch using the `--track`
- and `--no-track` options. This option defaults to false.
+ and `--no-track` options. This option defaults to true.
branch.<name>.remote::
When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.