Re: mingw, windows, crlf/lf, and git

From: Mark Levedahl <mlevedahl@verizon.net>
Date: Feb 13, 2007, 00:32 UTC
Message-ID: <45D10726.2070501@verizon.net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.63.0702130020450.22628@wbgn013.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de>

Johannes Schindelin wrote:

Show 24 quoted lines

> Hi,
>
> On Mon, 12 Feb 2007, Junio C Hamano wrote:
>
>   
>> I agree that we can assume editors can grok files with LF end-of-line 
>> just fine and we would not need to do the reverse conversion on checkout 
>> paths (e.g. "read-tree -u", "checkout-index").
>>     
>
> In that case, a simple pre-commit hook would suffice.
>
> No, the problem mentioned by Mark was a very real one: you _cannot_ rely 
> on Windows' editors not to fsck up with line endings. The worst case is if 
> the file contains _some_ CRLF and _some _LF_. Almost always I had the 
> problem that it now converted _all_ LFs to CRLFs. Even those which already 
> were converted.
>
> So, if we are to support text mode, it is not one-way. If we do one-way, 
> we really do _not_ support text mode, but pre-commit conversion to LF 
> style text. And in this case, core git does not need _any_ change.
>
> Ciao,
> Dscho

In my work flow, I am using a pre-commit script that (among other things) rewrites all text files to have \n endings. This is a one-way conversion, and does work well for the set of tools I am using. The converters I use I wrote years ago, and are smart enough to deal with mixtures of \n, \r\n, and \r line endings in one file, transforming all into one unified form. d2u / u2d were not that robust when I last tried them (years ago), but this is an absolute necessity.

However, I don't think the one-way conversion is acceptable across the board. While the only Windows editor I am aware of that doesn't grok \n is Notepad (the moral equivalent of edlin), I suspect that undo reliance upon this will still lead to grief. If nothing else, someone, somewhere will find that their beloved crlf's are missing and will complain. Loudly. And in the lore, git will become known for being "wierd." So, I suspect a checkout script is necessary.

Mark