git-check-attr(1): add output and example sections

[git.git] / Documentation / git-check-attr.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt b/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
index ef16b93982f92dd0bc567a3c9bdeaa7703eeac3a..4b3c2b0b06e9821124759d0cc6240d0a1953d2fa 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ git-check-attr - Display gitattributes information.
 
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
-'git-check-attr' attr... [--] pathname...
+'git check-attr' attr... [--] pathname...
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -22,6 +22,56 @@ OPTIONS
        arguments as path names. If not supplied, only the first argument will
        be treated as an attribute.
 
+OUTPUT
+------
+
+The output is of the form:
+<path> COLON SP <attribute> COLON SP <info> LF
+
+Where <path> is the path of a file being queried, <attribute> is an attribute
+being queried and <info> can be either:
+
+'unspecified';; when the attribute is not defined for the path.
+'unset';;      when the attribute is defined to false.
+'set';;                when the attribute is defined to true.
+<value>;;      when a value has been assigned to the attribute.
+
+EXAMPLES
+--------
+
+In the examples, the following '.gitattributes' file is used:
+---------------
+*.java diff=java -crlf myAttr
+NoMyAttr.java !myAttr
+README caveat=unspecified
+---------------
+
+* Listing a single attribute:
+---------------
+$ git check-attr diff org/example/MyClass.java
+org/example/MyClass.java: diff: java
+---------------
+
+* Listing multiple attributes for a file:
+---------------
+$ git check-attr crlf diff myAttr -- org/example/MyClass.java
+org/example/MyClass.java: crlf: unset
+org/example/MyClass.java: diff: java
+org/example/MyClass.java: myAttr: set
+---------------
+
+* Listing attribute for multiple files:
+---------------
+$ git check-attr myAttr -- org/example/MyClass.java org/example/NoMyAttr.java
+org/example/MyClass.java: myAttr: set
+org/example/NoMyAttr.java: myAttr: unspecified
+---------------
+
+* Not all values are equally unambiguous:
+---------------
+$ git check-attr caveat README
+README: caveat: unspecified
+---------------
 
 SEE ALSO
 --------
@@ -30,7 +80,7 @@ linkgit:gitattributes[5].
 
 Author
 ------
-Written by Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net>
+Written by Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
 
 Documentation
 --------------