I'd like to point out the following two posts, as I think they are relevant to this thread: [PATCH] example hook script to save/restore file permissions/ownership http://marc.info/?l=git&m=118953004817642&w=2 [PATCH] post_merge hook, related documentation, and tests http://marc.info/?l=git&m=118953004730496&w=2 The hook script above runs in a pre-commit hook to write out file metadata to a file in the repository. It can then be run from the post-merge hook (patch above) to restore permissions. Running it from a post-checkout hook may be more appropriate, but post-merge seems to work well for my purposes. The script handles merge conflicts and (in my testing) does the right thing. I'm using it now to track metadata for not just /etc, but an entire linux image. It will handle merge conflicts by recognizing that the metadata file had a conflict, and will direct the user to resolve the conflict and reset working dir perms before allowing a commit. -JE - 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