# git-check-attr(1) Manual Page

## NAME

git-check-attr - Display gitattributes information

## SYNOPSIS

    git check-attr [-a | --all | attr…​] [--] pathname…​
    git check-attr --stdin [-z] [-a | --all | attr…​] < <list-of-paths>

## DESCRIPTION

For every pathname, this command will list if each attribute is unspecified, set, or unset as a gitattribute on that pathname.

## OPTIONS

-a, --all

  List all attributes that are associated with the specified paths. If this option is used, then unspecified attributes will not be included in the output.

--cached

  Consider `.gitattributes` in the index only, ignoring the working tree.

--stdin

  Read file names from stdin instead of from the command-line.

-z

  The output format is modified to be machine-parseable. If `--stdin` is also given, input paths are separated with a NUL character instead of a linefeed character.

--

  Interpret all preceding arguments as attributes and all following arguments as path names.

If none of `--stdin`, `--all`, or `--` is used, the first argument will be treated as an attribute and the rest of the arguments as pathnames.

## OUTPUT

The output is of the form: <path> COLON SP <attribute> COLON SP <info> LF

unless `-z` is in effect, in which case NUL is used as delimiter: <path> NUL <attribute> NUL <info> NUL

<path> is the path of a file being queried, <attribute> is an attribute being queried and <info> can be either:

unspecified

  when the attribute is not defined for the path.

unset

  when the attribute is defined as false.

set

  when the attribute is defined as true.

<value>

  when a value has been assigned to the attribute.

Buffering happens as documented under the `GIT_FLUSH` option in linkgit:git[1]. The caller is responsible for avoiding deadlocks caused by overfilling an input buffer or reading from an empty output buffer.

## EXAMPLES

In the examples, the following .gitattributes file is used:

    *.java diff=java -crlf myAttr
    NoMyAttr.java !myAttr
    README caveat=unspecified

- Listing a single attribute:

    $ git check-attr diff org/example/MyClass.java
    org/example/MyClass.java: diff: java

- Listing multiple attributes for a file:

    $ git check-attr crlf diff myAttr -- org/example/MyClass.java
    org/example/MyClass.java: crlf: unset
    org/example/MyClass.java: diff: java
    org/example/MyClass.java: myAttr: set

- Listing all attributes for a file:

    $ git check-attr --all -- org/example/MyClass.java
    org/example/MyClass.java: diff: java
    org/example/MyClass.java: myAttr: set

- Listing an attribute for multiple files:

    $ git check-attr myAttr -- org/example/MyClass.java org/example/NoMyAttr.java
    org/example/MyClass.java: myAttr: set
    org/example/NoMyAttr.java: myAttr: unspecified

- Not all values are equally unambiguous:

    $ git check-attr caveat README
    README: caveat: unspecified

## SEE ALSO

linkgit:gitattributes[5].

## GIT

Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite