# System wide gitattributes

4 messages from 2009-09-16 to 2009-09-24. Participants: David Förster, Rustom Mody, Matthieu Moy, Jeff King.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/20970

## David Förster, 2009-09-16 11:50

Subject: System wide gitattributes
Message-ID: <4AB0D0EB.5080105@andrena.de>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/4AB0D0EB.5080105%40andrena.de

```
Hi there,

from the documentation I understand that things like external diff tools 
can be set up in a gitattributes file per repository (or subfolder).

Why is there no support for a ~/.gitattributes file? This would be very 
handy, for example to always get a textual diff of OpenDocument files.

Regards,
  - David

ps: Please cc, I'm not on the list.

```

## Rustom Mody, 2009-09-16 12:16

Subject: Re: System wide gitattributes
Message-ID: <f46c52560909160516w1d888a23yedd1fafae515bfbe@mail.gmail.com>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/f46c52560909160516w1d888a23yedd1fafae515bfbe%40mail.gmail.com
In-Reply-To: <4AB0D0EB.5080105@andrena.de>

```
2009/9/16 David Förster <david.foerster@andrena.de>:
> Hi there,
>
> from the documentation I understand that things like external diff tools can
> be set up in a gitattributes file per repository (or subfolder).
>
> Why is there no support for a ~/.gitattributes file? This would be very
> handy, for example to always get a textual diff of OpenDocument files.
>

They are there; see

http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-config.html#FILES

```

## Matthieu Moy, 2009-09-16 12:53

Subject: Re: System wide gitattributes
Message-ID: <vpqd45rm4og.fsf@bauges.imag.fr>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/vpqd45rm4og.fsf%40bauges.imag.fr
In-Reply-To: <f46c52560909160516w1d888a23yedd1fafae515bfbe@mail.gmail.com>

```
Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> writes:

> 2009/9/16 David Förster <david.foerster@andrena.de>:
>> Hi there,
>>
>> from the documentation I understand that things like external diff tools can
>> be set up in a gitattributes file per repository (or subfolder).
>>
>> Why is there no support for a ~/.gitattributes file? This would be very
>> handy, for example to always get a textual diff of OpenDocument files.
>>
>
> They are there; see
>
> http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-config.html#FILES

~/.gitconfig is there, but I don't see a ~/.gitattributes file
mentionned in this page ...

-- 
Matthieu Moy
http://www-verimag.imag.fr/~moy/

```

## Jeff King, 2009-09-24 07:08

Subject: Re: System wide gitattributes
Message-ID: <20090924070857.GA461@coredump.intra.peff.net>
URL: https://gitlist.dev/e/20090924070857.GA461%40coredump.intra.peff.net
In-Reply-To: <4AB0D0EB.5080105@andrena.de>

```
On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 01:50:03PM +0200, David Förster wrote:

> from the documentation I understand that things like external diff
> tools can be set up in a gitattributes file per repository (or
> subfolder).
> 
> Why is there no support for a ~/.gitattributes file? This would be
> very handy, for example to always get a textual diff of OpenDocument
> files.

I think it is simply that nobody found it particularly useful until now,
and so nobody implemented it. Gitattributes tend to be somewhat tied to
the project files themselves. However, I can certainly see the use of
something like "*.doc diff=word" in your ~/.gitattributes.

So I think it is a sound concept; it just needs somebody to volunteer to
write it.

-Peff

```