[SOLVED] Merging a remote .gitattribute file with local .gitattribute file with merging strategy union

Merging a remote .gitattribute file with local .gitattribute file with merging strategy union

I am working with git p4 rebase and git LFS. unfortunately after syncing the P4 contents to local git repo, it removes all the existing LFS tracked files from .gitattributes, and adds files to .gitattributes that were synced.

example:

Local and remote .gitattributes file before sync

    File 1 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
    File 2 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
    File 3 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text

local .gitattributes file after sync

    File 4 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
    File 5 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text

Now, if I push to remote, I will lose tracking on 1,2,3. So before I push I need to merge the remote .gitattributes file with the local .gitattributes file to obtain

    File 1 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
    File 2 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
    File 3 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
    File 4 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text
    File 5 filter=lfs diff=lfs merge=lfs -text

Then I can push to remote.

Solution

The following works

git show origin/master:.gitattributes > ./.gitattributes.theirs touch blankFile git merge-file --union .gitattributes blankFile .gitattributes.theirs

if you do not want to overrride .gitattributes you can do

git merge-file -p --union .gitattributes blankFile .gitattributes.theirs > .gitattributes.new