6 gitattributes - defining attributes per path
10 $GIT_DIR/info/attributes, .gitattributes
16 A `gitattributes` file is a simple text file that gives
17 `attributes` to pathnames.
19 Each line in `gitattributes` file is of form:
21 pattern attr1 attr2 ...
23 That is, a pattern followed by an attributes list,
24 separated by whitespaces. When the pattern matches the
25 path in question, the attributes listed on the line are given to
28 Each attribute can be in one of these states for a given path:
32 The path has the attribute with special value "true";
33 this is specified by listing only the name of the
34 attribute in the attribute list.
38 The path has the attribute with special value "false";
39 this is specified by listing the name of the attribute
40 prefixed with a dash `-` in the attribute list.
44 The path has the attribute with specified string value;
45 this is specified by listing the name of the attribute
46 followed by an equal sign `=` and its value in the
51 No pattern matches the path, and nothing says if
52 the path has or does not have the attribute, the
53 attribute for the path is said to be Unspecified.
55 When more than one pattern matches the path, a later line
56 overrides an earlier line. This overriding is done per
57 attribute. The rules how the pattern matches paths are the
58 same as in `.gitignore` files; see linkgit:gitignore[5].
60 When deciding what attributes are assigned to a path, git
61 consults `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes` file (which has the highest
62 precedence), `.gitattributes` file in the same directory as the
63 path in question, and its parent directories up to the toplevel of the
64 work tree (the further the directory that contains `.gitattributes`
65 is from the path in question, the lower its precedence). Finally
66 global and system-wide files are considered (they have the lowest
69 If you wish to affect only a single repository (i.e., to assign
70 attributes to files that are particular to
71 one user's workflow for that repository), then
72 attributes should be placed in the `$GIT_DIR/info/attributes` file.
73 Attributes which should be version-controlled and distributed to other
74 repositories (i.e., attributes of interest to all users) should go into
75 `.gitattributes` files. Attributes that should affect all repositories
76 for a single user should be placed in a file specified by the
77 `core.attributesfile` configuration option (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
78 Attributes for all users on a system should be placed in the
79 `$(prefix)/etc/gitattributes` file.
81 Sometimes you would need to override an setting of an attribute
82 for a path to `unspecified` state. This can be done by listing
83 the name of the attribute prefixed with an exclamation point `!`.
89 Certain operations by git can be influenced by assigning
90 particular attributes to a path. Currently, the following
91 operations are attributes-aware.
93 Checking-out and checking-in
94 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
96 These attributes affect how the contents stored in the
97 repository are copied to the working tree files when commands
98 such as 'git checkout' and 'git merge' run. They also affect how
99 git stores the contents you prepare in the working tree in the
100 repository upon 'git add' and 'git commit'.
105 This attribute enables and controls end-of-line normalization. When a
106 text file is normalized, its line endings are converted to LF in the
107 repository. To control what line ending style is used in the working
108 directory, use the `eol` attribute for a single file and the
109 `core.eol` configuration variable for all text files.
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.
119 Unsetting the `text` attribute on a path tells git not to
120 attempt any end-of-line conversion upon checkin or checkout.
122 Set to string value "auto"::
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.
130 If the `text` attribute is unspecified, git uses the
131 `core.autocrlf` configuration variable to determine if the
132 file should be converted.
134 Any other value causes git to act as if `text` has been left
140 This attribute sets a specific line-ending style to be used in the
141 working directory. It enables end-of-line normalization without any
142 content checks, effectively setting the `text` attribute.
144 Set to string value "crlf"::
146 This setting forces git to normalize line endings for this
147 file on checkin and convert them to CRLF when the file is
150 Set to string value "lf"::
152 This setting forces git to normalize line endings to LF on
153 checkin and prevents conversion to CRLF when the file is
156 Backwards compatibility with `crlf` attribute
157 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
159 For backwards compatibility, the `crlf` attribute is interpreted as
162 ------------------------
166 ------------------------
168 End-of-line conversion
169 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
171 While git normally leaves file contents alone, it can be configured to
172 normalize line endings to LF in the repository and, optionally, to
173 convert them to CRLF when files are checked out.
175 Here is an example that will make git normalize .txt, .vcproj and .sh
176 files, ensure that .vcproj files have CRLF and .sh files have LF in
177 the working directory, and prevent .jpg files from being normalized
178 regardless of their content.
180 ------------------------
185 ------------------------
187 Other source code management systems normalize all text files in their
188 repositories, and there are two ways to enable similar automatic
189 normalization in git.
191 If you simply want to have CRLF line endings in your working directory
192 regardless of the repository you are working with, you can set the
193 config variable "core.autocrlf" without changing any attributes.
195 ------------------------
198 ------------------------
200 This does not force normalization of all text files, but does ensure
201 that text files that you introduce to the repository have their line
202 endings normalized to LF when they are added, and that files that are
203 already normalized in the repository stay normalized.
205 If you want to interoperate with a source code management system that
206 enforces end-of-line normalization, or you simply want all text files
207 in your repository to be normalized, you should instead set the `text`
208 attribute to "auto" for _all_ files.
210 ------------------------
212 ------------------------
214 This ensures that all files that git considers to be text will have
215 normalized (LF) line endings in the repository. The `core.eol`
216 configuration variable controls which line endings git will use for
217 normalized files in your working directory; the default is to use the
218 native line ending for your platform, or CRLF if `core.autocrlf` is
221 NOTE: When `text=auto` normalization is enabled in an existing
222 repository, any text files containing CRLFs should be normalized. If
223 they are not they will be normalized the next time someone tries to
224 change them, causing unfortunate misattribution. From a clean working
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
233 $ git add .gitattributes
234 $ git commit -m "Introduce end-of-line normalization"
235 -------------------------------------------------
237 If any files that should not be normalized show up in 'git status',
238 unset their `text` attribute before running 'git add -u'.
240 ------------------------
242 ------------------------
244 Conversely, text files that git does not detect can have normalization
247 ------------------------
249 ------------------------
251 If `core.safecrlf` is set to "true" or "warn", git verifies if
252 the conversion is reversible for the current setting of
253 `core.autocrlf`. For "true", git rejects irreversible
254 conversions; for "warn", git only prints a warning but accepts
255 an irreversible conversion. The safety triggers to prevent such
256 a conversion done to the files in the work tree, but there are a
257 few exceptions. Even though...
259 - 'git add' itself does not touch the files in the work tree, the
260 next checkout would, so the safety triggers;
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;
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.
275 When the attribute `ident` is set for a path, git replaces
276 `$Id$` in the blob object with `$Id:`, followed by the
277 40-character hexadecimal blob object name, followed by a dollar
278 sign `$` upon checkout. Any byte sequence that begins with
279 `$Id:` and ends with `$` in the worktree file is replaced
280 with `$Id$` upon check-in.
286 A `filter` attribute can be set to a string value that names a
287 filter driver specified in the configuration.
289 A filter driver consists of a `clean` command and a `smudge`
290 command, either of which can be left unspecified. Upon
291 checkout, when the `smudge` command is specified, the command is
292 fed the blob object from its standard input, and its standard
293 output is used to update the worktree file. Similarly, the
294 `clean` command is used to convert the contents of worktree file
297 A missing filter driver definition in the config is not an error
298 but makes the filter a no-op passthru.
300 The content filtering is done to massage the content into a
301 shape that is more convenient for the platform, filesystem, and
302 the user to use. The key phrase here is "more convenient" and not
303 "turning something unusable into usable". In other words, the
304 intent is that if someone unsets the filter driver definition,
305 or does not have the appropriate filter program, the project
306 should still be usable.
308 For example, in .gitattributes, you would assign the `filter`
311 ------------------------
313 ------------------------
315 Then you would define a "filter.indent.clean" and "filter.indent.smudge"
316 configuration in your .git/config to specify a pair of commands to
317 modify the contents of C programs when the source files are checked
318 in ("clean" is run) and checked out (no change is made because the
321 ------------------------
325 ------------------------
327 For best results, `clean` should not alter its output further if it is
328 run twice ("clean->clean" should be equivalent to "clean"), and
329 multiple `smudge` commands should not alter `clean`'s output
330 ("smudge->smudge->clean" should be equivalent to "clean"). See the
331 section on merging below.
333 The "indent" filter is well-behaved in this regard: it will not modify
334 input that is already correctly indented. In this case, the lack of a
335 smudge filter means that the clean filter _must_ accept its own output
336 without modifying it.
339 Interaction between checkin/checkout attributes
340 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
342 In the check-in codepath, the worktree file is first converted
343 with `filter` driver (if specified and corresponding driver
344 defined), then the result is processed with `ident` (if
345 specified), and then finally with `text` (again, if specified
348 In the check-out codepath, the blob content is first converted
349 with `text`, and then `ident` and fed to `filter`.
352 Merging branches with differing checkin/checkout attributes
353 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
355 If you have added attributes to a file that cause the canonical
356 repository format for that file to change, such as adding a
357 clean/smudge filter or text/eol/ident attributes, merging anything
358 where the attribute is not in place would normally cause merge
361 To prevent these unnecessary merge conflicts, git can be told to run a
362 virtual check-out and check-in of all three stages of a file when
363 resolving a three-way merge by setting the `merge.renormalize`
364 configuration variable. This prevents changes caused by check-in
365 conversion from causing spurious merge conflicts when a converted file
366 is merged with an unconverted file.
368 As long as a "smudge->clean" results in the same output as a "clean"
369 even on files that are already smudged, this strategy will
370 automatically resolve all filter-related conflicts. Filters that do
371 not act in this way may cause additional merge conflicts that must be
381 The attribute `diff` affects how 'git' generates diffs for particular
382 files. It can tell git whether to generate a textual patch for the path
383 or to treat the path as a binary file. It can also affect what line is
384 shown on the hunk header `@@ -k,l +n,m @@` line, tell git to use an
385 external command to generate the diff, or ask git to convert binary
386 files to a text format before generating the diff.
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.
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).
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`.
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
416 Defining an external diff driver
417 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
419 The definition of a diff driver is done in `gitconfig`, not
420 `gitattributes` file, so strictly speaking this manual page is a
421 wrong place to talk about it. However...
423 To define an external diff driver `jcdiff`, add a section to your
424 `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this:
426 ----------------------------------------------------------------
429 ----------------------------------------------------------------
431 When git needs to show you a diff for the path with `diff`
432 attribute set to `jcdiff`, it calls the command you specified
433 with the above configuration, i.e. `j-c-diff`, with 7
434 parameters, just like `GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF` program is called.
435 See linkgit:git[1] for details.
438 Defining a custom hunk-header
439 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
441 Each group of changes (called a "hunk") in the textual diff output
442 is prefixed with a line of the form:
446 This is called a 'hunk header'. The "TEXT" portion is by default a line
447 that begins with an alphabet, an underscore or a dollar sign; this
448 matches what GNU 'diff -p' output uses. This default selection however
449 is not suited for some contents, and you can use a customized pattern
452 First, in .gitattributes, you would assign the `diff` attribute
455 ------------------------
457 ------------------------
459 Then, you would define a "diff.tex.xfuncname" configuration to
460 specify a regular expression that matches a line that you would
461 want to appear as the hunk header "TEXT". Add a section to your
462 `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this:
464 ------------------------
466 xfuncname = "^(\\\\(sub)*section\\{.*)$"
467 ------------------------
469 Note. A single level of backslashes are eaten by the
470 configuration file parser, so you would need to double the
471 backslashes; the pattern above picks a line that begins with a
472 backslash, and zero or more occurrences of `sub` followed by
473 `section` followed by open brace, to the end of line.
475 There are a few built-in patterns to make this easier, and `tex`
476 is one of them, so you do not have to write the above in your
477 configuration file (you still need to enable this with the
478 attribute mechanism, via `.gitattributes`). The following built in
479 patterns are available:
481 - `bibtex` suitable for files with BibTeX coded references.
483 - `cpp` suitable for source code in the C and C++ languages.
485 - `csharp` suitable for source code in the C# language.
487 - `fortran` suitable for source code in the Fortran language.
489 - `html` suitable for HTML/XHTML documents.
491 - `java` suitable for source code in the Java language.
493 - `objc` suitable for source code in the Objective-C language.
495 - `pascal` suitable for source code in the Pascal/Delphi language.
497 - `php` suitable for source code in the PHP language.
499 - `python` suitable for source code in the Python language.
501 - `ruby` suitable for source code in the Ruby language.
503 - `tex` suitable for source code for LaTeX documents.
506 Customizing word diff
507 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
509 You can customize the rules that `git diff --word-diff` uses to
510 split words in a line, by specifying an appropriate regular expression
511 in the "diff.*.wordRegex" configuration variable. For example, in TeX
512 a backslash followed by a sequence of letters forms a command, but
513 several such commands can be run together without intervening
514 whitespace. To separate them, use a regular expression in your
515 `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this:
517 ------------------------
519 wordRegex = "\\\\[a-zA-Z]+|[{}]|\\\\.|[^\\{}[:space:]]+"
520 ------------------------
522 A built-in pattern is provided for all languages listed in the
526 Performing text diffs of binary files
527 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
529 Sometimes it is desirable to see the diff of a text-converted
530 version of some binary files. For example, a word processor
531 document can be converted to an ASCII text representation, and
532 the diff of the text shown. Even though this conversion loses
533 some information, the resulting diff is useful for human
534 viewing (but cannot be applied directly).
536 The `textconv` config option is used to define a program for
537 performing such a conversion. The program should take a single
538 argument, the name of a file to convert, and produce the
539 resulting text on stdout.
541 For example, to show the diff of the exif information of a
542 file instead of the binary information (assuming you have the
543 exif tool installed), add the following section to your
544 `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file):
546 ------------------------
549 ------------------------
551 NOTE: The text conversion is generally a one-way conversion;
552 in this example, we lose the actual image contents and focus
553 just on the text data. This means that diffs generated by
554 textconv are _not_ suitable for applying. For this reason,
555 only `git diff` and the `git log` family of commands (i.e.,
556 log, whatchanged, show) will perform text conversion. `git
557 format-patch` will never generate this output. If you want to
558 send somebody a text-converted diff of a binary file (e.g.,
559 because it quickly conveys the changes you have made), you
560 should generate it separately and send it as a comment _in
561 addition to_ the usual binary diff that you might send.
563 Because text conversion can be slow, especially when doing a
564 large number of them with `git log -p`, git provides a mechanism
565 to cache the output and use it in future diffs. To enable
566 caching, set the "cachetextconv" variable in your diff driver's
569 ------------------------
573 ------------------------
575 This will cache the result of running "exif" on each blob
576 indefinitely. If you change the textconv config variable for a
577 diff driver, git will automatically invalidate the cache entries
578 and re-run the textconv filter. If you want to invalidate the
579 cache manually (e.g., because your version of "exif" was updated
580 and now produces better output), you can remove the cache
581 manually with `git update-ref -d refs/notes/textconv/jpg` (where
582 "jpg" is the name of the diff driver, as in the example above).
584 Performing a three-way merge
585 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
590 The attribute `merge` affects how three versions of a file is
591 merged when a file-level merge is necessary during `git merge`,
592 and other commands such as `git revert` and `git cherry-pick`.
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.
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.
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.
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".
624 Built-in merge drivers
625 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
627 There are a few built-in low-level merge drivers defined that
628 can be asked for via the `merge` attribute.
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 `=======`
641 Keep the version from your branch in the work tree, but
642 leave the path in the conflicted state for the user to
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.
655 Defining a custom merge driver
656 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
658 The definition of a merge driver is done in the `.git/config`
659 file, not in the `gitattributes` file, so strictly speaking this
660 manual page is a wrong place to talk about it. However...
662 To define a custom merge driver `filfre`, add a section to your
663 `$GIT_DIR/config` file (or `$HOME/.gitconfig` file) like this:
665 ----------------------------------------------------------------
667 name = feel-free merge driver
668 driver = filfre %O %A %B
670 ----------------------------------------------------------------
672 The `merge.*.name` variable gives the driver a human-readable
675 The `merge.*.driver` variable's value is used to construct a
676 command to run to merge ancestor's version (`%O`), current
677 version (`%A`) and the other branches' version (`%B`). These
678 three tokens are replaced with the names of temporary files that
679 hold the contents of these versions when the command line is
680 built. Additionally, %L will be replaced with the conflict marker
683 The merge driver is expected to leave the result of the merge in
684 the file named with `%A` by overwriting it, and exit with zero
685 status if it managed to merge them cleanly, or non-zero if there
688 The `merge.*.recursive` variable specifies what other merge
689 driver to use when the merge driver is called for an internal
690 merge between common ancestors, when there are more than one.
691 When left unspecified, the driver itself is used for both
692 internal merge and the final merge.
695 `conflict-marker-size`
696 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
698 This attribute controls the length of conflict markers left in
699 the work tree file during a conflicted merge. Only setting to
700 the value to a positive integer has any meaningful effect.
702 For example, this line in `.gitattributes` can be used to tell the merge
703 machinery to leave much longer (instead of the usual 7-character-long)
704 conflict markers when merging the file `Documentation/git-merge.txt`
705 results in a conflict.
707 ------------------------
708 Documentation/git-merge.txt conflict-marker-size=32
709 ------------------------
712 Checking whitespace errors
713 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
718 The `core.whitespace` configuration variable allows you to define what
719 'diff' and 'apply' should consider whitespace errors for all paths in
720 the project (See linkgit:git-config[1]). This attribute gives you finer
725 Notice all types of potential whitespace errors known to git.
729 Do not notice anything as error.
733 Use the value of `core.whitespace` configuration variable to
734 decide what to notice as error.
738 Specify a comma separate list of common whitespace problems to
739 notice in the same format as `core.whitespace` configuration
749 Files and directories with the attribute `export-ignore` won't be added to
755 If the attribute `export-subst` is set for a file then git will expand
756 several placeholders when adding this file to an archive. The
757 expansion depends on the availability of a commit ID, i.e., if
758 linkgit:git-archive[1] has been given a tree instead of a commit or a
759 tag then no replacement will be done. The placeholders are the same
760 as those for the option `--pretty=format:` of linkgit:git-log[1],
761 except that they need to be wrapped like this: `$Format:PLACEHOLDERS$`
762 in the file. E.g. the string `$Format:%H$` will be replaced by the
772 Delta compression will not be attempted for blobs for paths with the
773 attribute `delta` set to false.
776 Viewing files in GUI tools
777 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
782 The value of this attribute specifies the character encoding that should
783 be used by GUI tools (e.g. linkgit:gitk[1] and linkgit:git-gui[1]) to
784 display the contents of the relevant file. Note that due to performance
785 considerations linkgit:gitk[1] does not use this attribute unless you
786 manually enable per-file encodings in its options.
788 If 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]).
793 USING ATTRIBUTE MACROS
794 ----------------------
796 You do not want any end-of-line conversions applied to, nor textual diffs
797 produced for, any binary file you track. You would need to specify e.g.
803 but that may become cumbersome, when you have many attributes. Using
804 attribute macros, you can specify groups of attributes set or unset at
805 the same time. The system knows a built-in attribute macro, `binary`:
811 which is equivalent to the above. Note that the attribute macros can only
812 be "Set" (see the above example that sets "binary" macro as if it were an
813 ordinary attribute --- setting it in turn unsets "text" and "diff").
816 DEFINING ATTRIBUTE MACROS
817 -------------------------
819 Custom attribute macros can be defined only in the `.gitattributes` file
820 at the toplevel (i.e. not in any subdirectory). The built-in attribute
821 macro "binary" is equivalent to:
824 [attr]binary -diff -text
831 If you have these three `gitattributes` file:
833 ----------------------------------------------------------------
834 (in $GIT_DIR/info/attributes)
841 (in t/.gitattributes)
845 ----------------------------------------------------------------
847 the attributes given to path `t/abc` are computed as follows:
849 1. By examining `t/.gitattributes` (which is in the same
850 directory as the path in question), git finds that the first
851 line matches. `merge` attribute is set. It also finds that
852 the second line matches, and attributes `foo` and `bar`
855 2. Then it examines `.gitattributes` (which is in the parent
856 directory), and finds that the first line matches, but
857 `t/.gitattributes` file already decided how `merge`, `foo`
858 and `bar` attributes should be given to this path, so it
859 leaves `foo` and `bar` unset. Attribute `baz` is set.
861 3. Finally it examines `$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.
866 As the result, the attributes assignment to `t/abc` becomes:
868 ----------------------------------------------------------------
872 merge set to string value "filfre"
874 ----------------------------------------------------------------
880 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite