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End of Line (CR LF, LF)

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Eric Bouchut edited this page May 18, 2021 · 13 revisions

core.autocrlf

  • On Windows: git config --global core.autocrlf true

When committing a text file to the repository git replaces CR+LF with LF. When checking out a text file from the repository git replaces LF with CR+LF.

  • On Linux (or MacOS): git config --global core.autocrlf input

When committing a text file to the repository git replaces CR+LF with LF. When checking out a text file from the repository git does not do any replacement.

Error fatal: CRLF would be replaced by LF

When trying to add a file that contains CR+LF to the index (staging area), git refuses to do it and displays this fatal error fatal: CRLF would be replaced by LF in file_with_crlf.txt

This is because of a Windows file containing CR+LF line-endings was added to working directory.

git add file_with_crlf.txt
Error: fatal: CRLF would be replaced by LF in file_with_crlf.txt

FYI, I'm running git on MacOS and configured git like so git config --global core.crlf input, which means that when I commit text files to the repository git converts CR+LF into LF. It however does not do this conversion the other way around (ie. when I check out files from the repository).

I add to the index a file with CR+LF (that comes from Windows) but git refuses to do so because this operation cannot be reversed. Why? When git stores this text file to the repository it replaces the CR+LF with LF, and this is perfectly fine. However, when copying this file from the repository to the working directory (checking it out) it leaves LF unchanged and won't perform the opposite operation. Why this error? Git uses this fatal error message to inform us the file may be inconsistent once checked out from the repository because it won't contain the CR+LF it had initially but LF instead.

  • solution 1) convert CR+LF to LF before adding this file to the index (aka. staging area) using dos2unix
  • solution 2) Set core.safecrlf to warn in order to transform the above error into a warning and allow the conversion to occur
  • Solution 3) Use a .gitattributes file to define the line-ending conversions. Read more...

Use dos2unix to Convert CR+LF into LF

Here is how to convert CR+LF into LF in a text file file_with_crlf.txt (before adding it to the index).

dos2unix -k file_with_crlf.txt

git add file_with_crlf.txt       # No fatal error this time

where -k asks dos2unix to keep the file dates unchanged

core.safecrlf

When the value of core.safecrlf is either true or warn, Git checks if the conversion specified by core.autocrlf is not reversible:

  • if true, Git refuses to do the conversion (error) and prints an error message Error: fatal: CRLF would be replaced by LF.
  • if warn, Git does the conversion but only prints the above warning message.

Sources

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