Subject: Re: Cannot checkout after setting the eol attribute

From: Torsten Bögershausen <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2017 21:13:18 +0200

On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 01:49:18PM -0400, Ben Boeckel wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I specified the `eol` attribute on some files recently and the behavior
> of Git is very strange.
> 
> Here is the set of commands to set up the repository used for the
> discussion:
> 
>     git init
>     echo $'dos\r' > dos
>     git add dos
>     git commit -m "dos newlines"
>     echo "dos -crlf" > .gitattributes
>     git add .gitattributes
>     git commit -m "add attributes"
>     echo "dos eol=crlf" > .gitattributes
>     git add .gitattributes
>     git commit -m "set eol attribute instead"
> 
> The following behaviors are observed:
> 
>   - `git reset --hard` does not make the working directory clean; and
>   - `git rebase` gets *very* confused about the diffs in the working
>     tree because `git stash` can't reset the working tree;
> 

> There are probably other oddities lingering about as well. If I commit
> what Git thinks is the difference, the diff (with invisibles made
> visible) is:
> 
>     % git diff | cat -A
>     diff --git a/dos b/dos$
>     index fde2310..4723a1b 100644$
>     --- a/dos$
>     +++ b/dos$
>     @@ -1 +1 @@$
>     -dos^M$
>     +dos$

Thanks for the goos example!
This is by design.

When you set the text attribute (in your case "eol=crlf" implies text)
then the file(s) -must- be nomalized and commited so that they have LF
in the repo (technically speaking the index)

This is what is written about the "eol=crlf" attribute:
	This setting forces Git to normalize line endings for this
	file on checkin and convert them to CRLF when the file is
	checked out.
And this is what is implemented in Git.

Long story short:

The following would solve your problem:
   git init
   echo $'dos\r' > dos
   git add dos
   git commit -m "dos newlines"
   echo "dos -crlf" > .gitattributes
   git add .gitattributes
   git commit -m "add attributes"
   echo "dos eol=crlf" > .gitattributes
   git read-tree --empty   # Clean index, force re-scan of working directory
   git add dos
   git add .gitattributes
   git commit -m "set eol attribute instead"
   git ls-files --eol

> 
> Seen in 2.9.5 and 2.14.0.rc1.
> 
> --Ben