From: Junio C Hamano Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:37:26 +0000 (-0800) Subject: Merge branch 'jk/diff-driver-binary-doc' into next X-Git-Tag: ko-next~18 X-Git-Url: https://git.tokkee.org/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=1aa4c707f5e9217cffcce5f367ffea126caf0d51;p=git.git Merge branch 'jk/diff-driver-binary-doc' into next * jk/diff-driver-binary-doc: docs: explain diff.*.binary option --- 1aa4c707f5e9217cffcce5f367ffea126caf0d51 diff --cc Documentation/gitattributes.txt index 9e956f136,f3f880e27..7e7e12168 --- a/Documentation/gitattributes.txt +++ b/Documentation/gitattributes.txt @@@ -572,27 -414,40 +572,60 @@@ because it quickly conveys the changes should generate it separately and send it as a comment _in addition to_ the usual binary diff that you might send. +Because text conversion can be slow, especially when doing a +large number of them with `git log -p`, git provides a mechanism +to cache the output and use it in future diffs. To enable +caching, set the "cachetextconv" variable in your diff driver's +config. For example: + +------------------------ +[diff "jpg"] + textconv = exif + cachetextconv = true +------------------------ + +This will cache the result of running "exif" on each blob +indefinitely. If you change the textconv config variable for a +diff driver, git will automatically invalidate the cache entries +and re-run the textconv filter. If you want to invalidate the +cache manually (e.g., because your version of "exif" was updated +and now produces better output), you can remove the cache +manually with `git update-ref -d refs/notes/textconv/jpg` (where +"jpg" is the name of the diff driver, as in the example above). + Marking files as binary + ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + + Git usually guesses correctly whether a blob contains text or binary + data by examining the beginning of the contents. However, sometimes you + may want to override its decision, either because a blob contains binary + data later in the file, or because the content, while technically + composed of text characters, is opaque to a human reader. For example, + many postscript files contain only ascii characters, but produce noisy + and meaningless diffs. + + The simplest way to mark a file as binary is to unset the diff + attribute in the `.gitattributes` file: + + ------------------------ + *.ps -diff + ------------------------ + + This will cause git to generate `Binary files differ` (or a binary + patch, if binary patches are enabled) instead of a regular diff. + + However, one may also want to specify other diff driver attributes. For + example, you might want to use `textconv` to convert postscript files to + an ascii representation for human viewing, but otherwise treat them as + binary files. You cannot specify both `-diff` and `diff=ps` attributes. + The solution is to use the `diff.*.binary` config option: + + ------------------------ + [diff "ps"] + textconv = ps2ascii + binary = true + ------------------------ + Performing a three-way merge ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~