global and system-wide files are considered (they have the lowest
precedence).
+When the `.gitattributes` file is missing from the work tree, the
+path in the index is used as a fall-back. During checkout process,
+`.gitattributes` in the index is used and then the file in the
+working tree is used as a fall-back.
+
If you wish to affect only a single repository (i.e., to assign
attributes to files that are particular to
one user's workflow for that repository), then
`.gitattributes` files. Attributes that should affect all repositories
for a single user should be placed in a file specified by the
`core.attributesfile` configuration option (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
+Its default value is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/attributes. If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
+is either not set or empty, $HOME/.config/git/attributes is used instead.
Attributes for all users on a system should be placed in the
`$(prefix)/etc/gitattributes` file.
macro attribute "binary" is equivalent to:
------------
-[attr]binary -diff -text
+[attr]binary -diff -merge -text
------------