coreautocrlf

Core.autocrlf is a Git configuration option that controls how end-of-line characters are handled for text files during commits and checkouts. It is used to help teams maintain consistent line endings across different operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The option accepts three values: true, input, and false. With true, Git converts CRLF endings to LF when storing content in the repository, and converts LF back to CRLF when checking out files to the working directory. With input, Git only converts CRLF to LF on commit, leaving the working directory’s line endings unchanged during checkout. With false, Git performs no automatic line-ending conversion.

Usage guidance: On Windows development environments that collaborate with others, setting core.autocrlf to true is common to normalize repository content to LF while preserving Windows-style endings in the working tree. On Unix-like systems, many teams set core.autocrlf to input or false, depending on project conventions and how line endings are managed in the repository. The setting can be applied globally or per repository using git config --global core.autocrlf [value] or git config core.autocrlf [value].

Interaction with other settings: Core.autocrlf interacts with core.eol, which specifies the desired line-ending style for checkout. The behavior primarily targets text files; binary files are typically not subject to line-ending conversion. Misconfigurations can lead to inconsistent diffs or unexpected line endings in the working tree.