GIT-CHECK-ATTR(1)

🎀 NAME 🎀

okay bestie, meet git-check-attr(1) — the absolute icon that displays gitattributes information. That's the whole vibe: it tells you what a gitattribute is doing on a path. No cap. ✨

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

two synopsis forms, both precious:

git check-attr [--source <tree-ish>] [-a | --all | <attr>...] [--] <pathname>...
git check-attr --stdin [-z] [--source <tree-ish>] [-a | --all | <attr>...]

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

For every pathname, this command will list if each attribute is unspecified, set, or unset as a gitattribute on that pathname. literally that's the whole job, and it ate. 💅

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✨ 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. slay, but filtered.
• --cached — consider .gitattributes in the index only, ignoring the working tree. index-only behavior, iykyk.
• --stdin — read pathnames from the standard input, one per line, instead of from the command line. feed it paths, bestie.
• -z — the output format is modified to be machine-parsable. If --stdin is also given, input paths are separated with a NUL character instead of a linefeed character. NGL, very clean for scripts.
• --source=<tree-ish> — check attributes against the specified tree-ish. It is common to specify the source tree by naming a commit, branch, or tag associated with it. pick your source, periodt.
• -- — interpret all preceding arguments as attributes and all following arguments as path names. this little divider is doing main character work.

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.

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🦋 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.

heads up bestie: Buffering happens as documented under the GIT_FLUSH option in git(1). The caller is responsible for avoiding deadlocks caused by overfilling an input buffer or reading from an empty output buffer. 😭 don't let your pipes get weird.

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🌈 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

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

gitattributes(5) — go read it, bestie. 🦋

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👑 GIT 👑

Part of the git(1) suite. iconic behavior, honestly.

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✨ this page is Git 2.56.0, dated 2026-09-27 — the GIT-CHECK-ATTR(1) manual page. bye bestie, go check those attrs 💅💖