Subject: How do I get git-format-patch to ignore changes that remove spaces from the end of the line?

From: Timur Tabi <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:59:33 -0600

I have configured my text editor to remove spaces at the end of each line 
whenever it saves a file.  I do this so that I don't inadvertently add spaces to 
the end of any line.

Unfortunately, if the file *already* had spaces at the end of some lines before 
I start editing it, this spaces will also be removed.

After I commit my changes, I use git-format-patch to make a patch.  I then get 
deltas like this:

   * Copyright (C) 1996-2005 Paul Mackerras.
- *
+ *
   *  Adapted for 64bit PowerPC by Dave Engebretsen and Peter Bergner.
- *    [email-masked]
+ *    [email-masked]
   *

I don't want these deltas in my patch.  However, if I specify an option like 
--ignore-all-space, git-format-patch omits deltas like this one:

-               memcpy(fs_enet_data.macaddr, mac_addr, 6);
+                       memcpy(fs_enet_data.macaddr, mac_addr, 6);

In this case, I *do* want the delta, because I'm indenting a line to fix a 
formatting error.

So how do I get the output that I want, and not the output that I don't want?

-- 
Timur Tabi
Linux Kernel Developer @ Freescale