The git check-attr command is used to check and display the attribute settings for a given file or directory in a Git repository. It allows you to see the status of various attributes specified in the .gitattributes file for a specific path.
In Git, attributes are used to define special handling for certain files or paths in a repository. These attributes can control various aspects such as line-ending conversions, merge strategies, text encoding, and more. The .gitattributes file is where you define and configure these attributes.
When you run git check-attr, you provide one or more pathnames as arguments, and the command checks and displays the attribute status for each specified path. The output will indicate whether an attribute is unspecified, set, or unset for the given path.
For example, if you have a file named example.txt in your repository and you want to check the attributes set for that file, you can run the following command:
# git check-attr -a example.txt
The command will display the attribute status for example.txt, showing if each attribute is unspecified, set, or unset. The output may look something like this:
# example.txt: merge=unset
In this example, the merge attribute is unspecified for the example.txt file.
The git check-attr command can be useful when you want to verify the attribute settings for specific files or directories in your repository. It helps you understand how the attributes are applied and whether they are correctly configured.
It’s important to note that the effectiveness and availability of certain attributes may depend on the Git version and the configuration of your repository. Additionally, attributes can be inherited from parent directories, so the output of git check-attr may reflect the combined attribute settings from the .gitattributes file(s) in the path’s hierarchy.
To get more information about Git attributes and their usage, you can refer to the official Git documentation or the documentation specific to the attributes you are interested in.
git check-attr Command Examples
1. Check the values of all attributes on a file:
# git check-attr --all /path/to/file
2. Check the value of a specific attribute on a file:
# git check-attr attribute /path/to/file
3. Check the value of a specific attribute on files:
# git check-attr --all /path/to/file1 /path/to/file2
4. Check the value of a specific attribute on one or more files:
# git check-attr attribute /path/to/file1 /path/to/file2