Re: [PATCH 2/2] Make Git respect changes to .gitattributes during checkout.

> In a well structured git program, we always read from the work tree and
> the index (to see if there is something changed---you need to be able to
> apply convert_to_git when you do this), internally compute what should
> happen (e.g. decide that the new result needs to be checked out for a
> path), and then write it out (you apply convert_to_working_tree while you
> do this).  So how about doing something like the attached patch?
> 
> The patch allows the caller to tell the usual "read from the working tree,
> if not use the version from the index as the fallback" logic to be swapped
> around, and take the index version.  It may or may not pass your new tests
> (I haven't even compile tested it), but I think the damage is minimized
> compared to your version.

> It is great that you are trying to fix this issue for the most obvious
> "switching between two branches while not having a local change" case, but
> frankly, I do not think this is solvable in more general cases, and that
> is why it was kept "known to be broken, not worth fixing" state.
> 
> For example, you may notice that, after making a clean checkout, one path
> has a wrong attribute assigned to it, and may try to correct it.  But how?
> 
>  $ edit .gitattributes ;# mark foo.dat as binary
>  $ rm foo.dat
>  $ git checkout foo.dat ;# make sure the new settings is correct???