Signed-off-by: Eyvind Bernhardsen <eyvind.bernhardsen@xxxxxxxxx> --- How does this look? This commit should really be squashed into the first one in the series. Live and learn, next time I'll add new changes in a new commit and put it _last_. I'll submit a fixed series once we're happy with the documentation. - Eyvind Documentation/gitattributes.txt | 46 ++++++++++++++++++++++----------------- 1 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/gitattributes.txt b/Documentation/gitattributes.txt index b110082..22400c1 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitattributes.txt +++ b/Documentation/gitattributes.txt @@ -317,17 +317,16 @@ command is "cat"). smudge = cat ------------------------ -For best results, `clean` and `smudge` commands should produce output -that is not dependent on the corresponding command having been run. -That is, `clean` should produce identical output whether its input has -been run through `smudge` or not, and `smudge` should not rely on its -input having been run through `clean`. See the section on merging -below for a rationale. +For best results, `clean` should not alter its output further if it is +run twice ("clean->clean" should be equivalent to "clean"), and +multiple `smudge` commands should not alter `clean`'s output +("smudge->smudge->clean" should be equivalent to "clean"). See the +section on merging below. -The example "indent" filter is well-behaved in this regard: it will -accept input that is already correctly indented without modifying it. -In this case, the lack of a smudge filter means that the clean filter -_must_ accept its own output without modifying it. +The "indent" filter is well-behaved in this regard: it will not modify +input that is already correctly indented. In this case, the lack of a +smudge filter means that the clean filter _must_ accept its own output +without modifying it. Interaction between checkin/checkout attributes @@ -346,16 +345,23 @@ with `text`, and then `ident` and fed to `filter`. Merging branches with differing checkin/checkout attributes ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ -To prevent unnecessary merge conflicts, git runs a virtual check-out -and check-in of all three stages of a file when resolving a three-way -merge. This prevents changes caused by check-in conversion from -causing spurious merge conflicts when a converted file is merged with -an unconverted file. - -This strategy will break down if a `smudge` filter relies on its input -having been processed by the corresponding `clean` filter or vice -versa. Such filters may otherwise work well, but will prevent -automatic merging. +If you have added attributes to a file that cause the canonical +repository format for that file to change, such as adding a +clean/smudge filter or text/eol/ident attributes, merging anything +where the attribute is not in place would normally cause merge +conflicts. + +To prevent these unnecessary merge conflicts, git runs a virtual +check-out and check-in of all three stages of a file when resolving a +three-way merge. This prevents changes caused by check-in conversion +from causing spurious merge conflicts when a converted file is merged +with an unconverted file. + +As long as a "smudge->clean" results in the same output as a "clean" +even on files that are already smudged, this strategy will +automatically resolve all filter-related conflicts. Filters that do +not act in this way may cause additional merge conflicts that must be +resolved manually. Generating diff text -- 1.7.1.575.g383de -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html