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git adds some text file as binary file by mistake

Subject: git adds some text file as binary file by mistake

## tl;dr

7 messages between Oct 24, 2008 and Oct 31, 2008.

replies: 6people: 4as markdown or json

Michael J Gruber· Oct 24, 2008, 12:54 UTC · re: Ping Yin · lore

Re: git adds some text file as binary file by mistake

Ping Yin venit, vidit, dixit 24.10.2008 14:37:
> So what should i do if i want it added as text file?

You should give us more detail on the file ;) What's the extension, what's the typical content? It may be a simple matter of specifying attributes. Do ordinary diff and grep recognize your files as text?

Michael
Ping Yin· Oct 24, 2008, 13:30 UTC · re: Michael J Gruber · lore

Re: git adds some text file as binary file by mistake

On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 8:54 PM, Michael J Gruber <git@drmicha.warpmail.net> wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines
> Ping Yin venit, vidit, dixit 24.10.2008 14:37:
>> So what should i do if i want it added as text file?
>
> You should give us more detail on the file ;)
> What's the extension, what's the typical content? It may be a simple
> matter of specifying attributes.
> Do ordinary diff and grep recognize your files as text?
>
> Michael
>

It's just an xml file. I guess maybe there are some hidden characters at the beginning. I will figure it out later because i have no access to that file right now.

I'm just ask this problem in general sense. So is there a general way to specify whether a file is text or binary?

-- 
Ping Yin
Bruce Stephens· Oct 24, 2008, 13:34 UTC · re: Ping Yin · lore

Re: git adds some text file as binary file by mistake

"Ping Yin" <pkufranky@gmail.com> writes:
[...]
> I'm just ask this problem in general sense. So is there a general way
> to specify whether  a file is text or binary?
Yes: gitattributes(5).
Michael J Gruber· Oct 24, 2008, 13:51 UTC · re: Ping Yin · lore

Re: git adds some text file as binary file by mistake

Ping Yin venit, vidit, dixit 24.10.2008 15:30:
Show 15 quoted lines
> On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 8:54 PM, Michael J Gruber
> <git@drmicha.warpmail.net> wrote:
>> Ping Yin venit, vidit, dixit 24.10.2008 14:37:
>>> So what should i do if i want it added as text file?
>> You should give us more detail on the file ;)
>> What's the extension, what's the typical content? It may be a simple
>> matter of specifying attributes.
>> Do ordinary diff and grep recognize your files as text?
>>
>> Michael
>>
> 
> It's just an xml file. I guess maybe there are some hidden characters
> at the beginning. I will figure it out later because i have no access
> to that file right now.

Maybe it's in an encoding which is not available on the machine you're using git on?

> I'm just ask this problem in general sense. So is there a general way
> to specify whether  a file is text or binary?
Bruce suggested a good read. To save you some time: You want to say
*.xml diff
or
*.xml diff crlf

in one of the attributes files, depending on whether you want git to possibly translate line endings (which depends on other settings also). Note that the "content type" of the file plays a role only for diffs and stats, not for the actual storage (except for, possibly, crlf conversion).

Cheers, Michael

Ping Yin· Oct 30, 2008, 06:32 UTC · re: Ping Yin · lore

Re: git adds some text file as binary file by mistake

On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 9:30 PM, Ping Yin <pkufranky@gmail.com> wrote:
Show 19 quoted lines
> On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 8:54 PM, Michael J Gruber
> <git@drmicha.warpmail.net> wrote:
>> Ping Yin venit, vidit, dixit 24.10.2008 14:37:
>>> So what should i do if i want it added as text file?
>>
>> You should give us more detail on the file ;)
>> What's the extension, what's the typical content? It may be a simple
>> matter of specifying attributes.
>> Do ordinary diff and grep recognize your files as text?
>>
>> Michael
>>
>
> It's just an xml file. I guess maybe there are some hidden characters
> at the beginning. I will figure it out later because i have no access
> to that file right now.
>
> Ping Yin
>

I have figured it out. It's just because the BOM characters feff00 in the beginning of the utf-8 xml file.

-- 
Ping Yin
Robin Rosenberg· Oct 31, 2008, 00:29 UTC · re: Ping Yin · lore

Re: git adds some text file as binary file by mistake

torsdagen den 30 oktober 2008 07.32.47 skrev Ping Yin:
Show 23 quoted lines
> On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 9:30 PM, Ping Yin <pkufranky@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 8:54 PM, Michael J Gruber
> > <git@drmicha.warpmail.net> wrote:
> >> Ping Yin venit, vidit, dixit 24.10.2008 14:37:
> >>> So what should i do if i want it added as text file?
> >>
> >> You should give us more detail on the file ;)
> >> What's the extension, what's the typical content? It may be a simple
> >> matter of specifying attributes.
> >> Do ordinary diff and grep recognize your files as text?
> >>
> >> Michael
> >>
> >
> > It's just an xml file. I guess maybe there are some hidden characters
> > at the beginning. I will figure it out later because i have no access
> > to that file right now.
> >
> > Ping Yin
> >
> 
> I have figured it out. It's just because the BOM characters feff00 in
> the beginning of the utf-8 xml file.

The UTF-8 BOM is EF BB BF, (no NUL.). FEFF is UTF-16 BE (and the third byte would be 00 for an XML file). I think git currently regards just about any UTF-16 file as binary becuase of the NUL bytes.

-- robin

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