From: Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2017 01:07:50 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: gitattributes: dgit(7): Document our approach and rationale
X-Git-Tag: archive/debian/3.3~16
X-Git-Url: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~ianmdlvl/git?p=dgit.git;a=commitdiff_plain;h=afe62f515927bdedb8bd0b9cb5fe3230b3ae28c0;hp=e38f77d844867620d08d334ca46f1d9d2594bdc0

gitattributes: dgit(7): Document our approach and rationale

This is not properly implemented yet.

Signed-off-by: Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
---

diff --git a/dgit.7 b/dgit.7
index 635dc132..284fcf65 100644
--- a/dgit.7
+++ b/dgit.7
@@ -201,6 +201,22 @@ or previous non-Dgit uploads
 Distros which do not maintain a set of dgit history git repositories
 can still be used in a read-only mode with dgit.  Currently Ubuntu
 is configured this way.
+.SH GITATTRIBUTES
+git has features which can automatically transform files
+as they are being copied between the working tree
+and the git history.
+See \fBgitattributes\fP(5).
+
+These transformations are context-sensitive
+and not, in general, reversible,
+so dgit operates on the principle that
+the dgit git history contains the actual contents of the package.
+
+If transforming gitattributes used,
+they can cause trouble,
+because the working tree files can differ from
+the git revision history
+(and therefore from the source packages).
 .SH PACKAGE SOURCE FORMATS
 If you are not the maintainer, you do not need to worry about the
 source format of the package.  You can just make changes as you like