diff mbox series

[v4,2/2] attr: add flag `--revision` to work with revisions

Message ID a161dbdf8b70354716d0bfeccc707c242c7f33a1.1671630304.git.karthik.188@gmail.com (mailing list archive)
State New, archived
Headers show
Series check-attr: add support to work with revisions | expand

Commit Message

Karthik Nayak Dec. 21, 2022, 1:47 p.m. UTC
The contents of the .gitattributes files may evolve over time, but "git
check-attr" always checks attributes against them in the working tree
and/or in the index. It may be beneficial to optionally allow the users
to check attributes taken from a commit other than HEAD against paths.

Add a new flag `--revision` which will allow users to check the
attributes against a commit (actually any tree-ish would do). When the
user uses this flag, we go through the stack of .gitattributes files but
instead of checking the current working tree and/or in the index, we
check the blobs from the provided tree-ish object. This allows the
command to also be used in bare repositories.

Since we use a tree-ish object, the user can pass "--revision
HEAD:subdirectory" and all the attributes will be looked up as if
subdirectory was the root directory of the repository.

We cannot simply use the `<rev>:<path>` syntax without the `--revision`
flag, similar to how it is used in `git show` because any non-flag
parameter before `--` is treated as an attribute and any parameter after
`--` is treated as a pathname.

The change involves creating a new function `read_attr_from_blob`, which
given the path reads the blob for the path against the provided revision and
parses the attributes line by line. This function is plugged into
`read_attr()` function wherein we go through the stack of attributes
files.

Signed-off-by: Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Toon Claes <toon@iotcl.com>
Co-authored-by: toon@iotcl.com
---
 Documentation/git-check-attr.txt |  9 ++-
 archive.c                        |  2 +-
 attr.c                           | 99 +++++++++++++++++++++++---------
 attr.h                           |  7 ++-
 builtin/check-attr.c             | 36 +++++++-----
 builtin/pack-objects.c           |  2 +-
 convert.c                        |  2 +-
 ll-merge.c                       |  4 +-
 pathspec.c                       |  2 +-
 t/t0003-attributes.sh            | 64 ++++++++++++++++++++-
 userdiff.c                       |  2 +-
 ws.c                             |  2 +-
 12 files changed, 178 insertions(+), 53 deletions(-)

Comments

Phillip Wood Dec. 21, 2022, 8:57 p.m. UTC | #1
Hi Karthik

On 21/12/2022 13:47, Karthik Nayak wrote:
> The contents of the .gitattributes files may evolve over time, but "git
> check-attr" always checks attributes against them in the working tree
> and/or in the index. It may be beneficial to optionally allow the users
> to check attributes taken from a commit other than HEAD against paths.
> 
> Add a new flag `--revision` which will allow users to check the
> attributes against a commit (actually any tree-ish would do). When the
> user uses this flag, we go through the stack of .gitattributes files but
> instead of checking the current working tree and/or in the index, we
> check the blobs from the provided tree-ish object. This allows the
> command to also be used in bare repositories.
> 
> Since we use a tree-ish object, the user can pass "--revision
> HEAD:subdirectory" and all the attributes will be looked up as if
> subdirectory was the root directory of the repository.

We should be clear in the documentation and option help that --revision 
takes a tree-ish (i.e. --revision=<tree-ish>). Maybe calling the option 
--tree would be clearer.

> We cannot simply use the `<rev>:<path>` syntax without the `--revision`
> flag, similar to how it is used in `git show` because any non-flag
> parameter before `--` is treated as an attribute and any parameter after
> `--` is treated as a pathname.
> 
> The change involves creating a new function `read_attr_from_blob`, which
> given the path reads the blob for the path against the provided revision and
> parses the attributes line by line. This function is plugged into
> `read_attr()` function wherein we go through the stack of attributes
> files.

The implementation looks good apart from failing to bail out if it 
cannot parse the argument to --revision (perhaps we should add a test 
for that). I've left a few suggestions below.

> Signed-off-by: Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
> Signed-off-by: Toon Claes <toon@iotcl.com>
> Co-authored-by: toon@iotcl.com

> diff --git a/attr.c b/attr.c
> index 42ad6de8c7..6c69e82080 100644
> --- a/attr.c
> +++ b/attr.c
> @@ -11,8 +11,12 @@
>   #include "exec-cmd.h"
>   #include "attr.h"
>   #include "dir.h"
> +#include "strbuf.h"
> +#include "tree-walk.h"

These new includes are not required.

 > diff --git a/attr.h b/attr.h
 > index 3fb40cced0..f4a2bedd68 100644
 > --- a/attr.h
 > +++ b/attr.h
 > @@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 >  #ifndef ATTR_H
 >  #define ATTR_H
 >
 > +#include "hash.h"

This include is not required.

> diff --git a/builtin/check-attr.c b/builtin/check-attr.c
> index 0fef10eb6b..04640e0297 100644
> --- a/builtin/check-attr.c
> +++ b/builtin/check-attr.c
> @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
> +#include "repository.h"

This include is not required. Also please add any new includes below 
cache.h as Junio has previously mentioned.

>   #define USE_THE_INDEX_VARIABLE
>   #include "builtin.h"
>   #include "cache.h"
> @@ -9,9 +10,10 @@
>   static int all_attrs;
>   static int cached_attrs;
>   static int stdin_paths;
> +static char *revision;
>   static const char * const check_attr_usage[] = {
> -N_("git check-attr [-a | --all | <attr>...] [--] <pathname>..."),
> -N_("git check-attr --stdin [-z] [-a | --all | <attr>...]"),
> +N_("git check-attr [--revision <revision>] [-a | --all | <attr>...] [--] <pathname>..."),
> +N_("git check-attr --stdin [-z] [--revision <revision>] [-a | --all | <attr>...]"),
>   NULL
>   };
>   
> @@ -23,6 +25,7 @@ static const struct option check_attr_options[] = {
>   	OPT_BOOL(0 , "stdin", &stdin_paths, N_("read file names from stdin")),
>   	OPT_BOOL('z', NULL, &nul_term_line,
>   		 N_("terminate input and output records by a NUL character")),
> +	OPT_STRING(0, "revision", &revision, N_("revision"), N_("check attributes at this revision")),
>   	OPT_END()
>   };

> +	if (revision) {
> +		tree_oid = xmalloc(sizeof(struct object_id));

I think we prefer 'var = xmalloc(sizeof(*var));' to avoid errors if the 
type of var changes. This allocation does not appear to be freed 
anywhere. We could avoid the allocation by delcaring an automatic 
variable above and setting tree_oid to point to it here.

> +		if (repo_get_oid_tree(the_repository, revision, tree_oid))
> +			error("%s: not a valid revision", revision);

We should die() here rather than continuing with a bad tree.

> +	}
> +
>   	if (stdin_paths)
> -		check_attr_stdin_paths(prefix, check, all_attrs);
> +		check_attr_stdin_paths(prefix, check, tree_oid, all_attrs);
>   	else {
>   		for (i = filei; i < argc; i++)
> -			check_attr(prefix, check, all_attrs, argv[i]);
> +			check_attr(prefix, check, tree_oid, all_attrs, argv[i]);
>   		maybe_flush_or_die(stdout, "attribute to stdout");
>   	}
> [...]
> diff --git a/t/t0003-attributes.sh b/t/t0003-attributes.sh
> index b3aabb8aa3..6e6a909a46 100755
> --- a/t/t0003-attributes.sh
> +++ b/t/t0003-attributes.sh
> @@ -25,7 +25,14 @@ attr_check_quote () {
>   	git check-attr test -- "$path" >actual &&
>   	echo "\"$quoted_path\": test: $expect" >expect &&
>   	test_cmp expect actual
> +}
> +
> +attr_check_revision () {
> +	path="$1" expect="$2" revision="$3" git_opts="$4" &&

Is that line valid posix shell? I know it works with local (which is not 
in posix) but is it allowed for global variables?

> +	git $git_opts check-attr --revision $revision test -- "$path" >actual 2>err &&

err is never used. Should we be doing 'test_must_be_empty err'?

> +	echo "$path: test: $expect" >expect &&
> +	test_cmp expect actual
>   }
>   
> [...]   
> +test_expect_success 'setup branches' '
> +	(
> +		echo "f	test=f" &&
> +		echo "a/i test=n"
> +	) 

We'd normally write this as

	test_write_lines "f test=f" "a/i test=n" | git hash-object ...

However I think it would be simpler to create the commit with something like

mkdir -p foo/bar &&
test_commit --printf "add .gitattributes" foo/bar/.gitattributes \
	"t test=f\na/i test=n\n" tag-1 &&
rm -r foo/bar/.gitattributes

which would also reduce the number of processes. Failing that a helper 
function to reduce the duplication would be a good idea.

| git hash-object -w --stdin >id &&
> +	git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644,$(cat id),foo/bar/.gitattributes &&
> +	git write-tree >id &&
> +	tree_id=$(cat id) &&

For future reference it is perfectly fine to write
	tree_oid=$(git write-tree) &&

as we will still detect a non-zero exit code from git.

> +	git commit-tree $tree_id -m "random commit message" >id &&
> +	commit_id=$(cat id) &&
> +	git update-ref refs/heads/branch1 $commit_id &&
> +
> +	(
> +		echo "g test=g" &&
> +		echo "a/i test=m"
> +	) | git hash-object -w --stdin >id &&
> +	git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644,$(cat id),foo/bar/.gitattributes &&
> +	git write-tree >id &&
> +	tree_id=$(cat id) &&
> +	git commit-tree $tree_id -m "random commit message" >id &&
> +	commit_id=$(cat id) &&
> +	git update-ref refs/heads/branch2 $commit_id
> +'
> [...]
>   test_expect_success 'setup bare' '
>   	git clone --template= --bare . bare.git
>   '
> @@ -306,6 +347,27 @@ test_expect_success 'bare repository: check that .gitattribute is ignored' '
>   	)
>   '
>   
> +test_expect_success 'bare repository: with --revision' '
> +	(
> +		cd bare.git &&

You could create a bare clone of the existing repo rather than having to 
recreate the commits here.

Best Wishes

Phillip
Eric Sunshine Dec. 21, 2022, 9:13 p.m. UTC | #2
On Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 3:58 PM Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 21/12/2022 13:47, Karthik Nayak wrote:
> > Since we use a tree-ish object, the user can pass "--revision
> > HEAD:subdirectory" and all the attributes will be looked up as if
> > subdirectory was the root directory of the repository.
>
> We should be clear in the documentation and option help that --revision
> takes a tree-ish (i.e. --revision=<tree-ish>). Maybe calling the option
> --tree would be clearer.

If that's the case, shouldn't this be called --source (or some
variation thereof) for consistency[1] with git-restore?

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAPig+cT_xz3m-3kkL_Scf0opNXkikU94kSF46VO8KHkNMWbGzg@mail.gmail.com/

> > +attr_check_revision () {
> > +     path="$1" expect="$2" revision="$3" git_opts="$4" &&
>
> Is that line valid posix shell? I know it works with local (which is not
> in posix) but is it allowed for global variables?

This is fine as-is; it's POSIX.
Phillip Wood Dec. 22, 2022, 2:36 p.m. UTC | #3
Hi Eric

On 21/12/2022 21:13, Eric Sunshine wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 3:58 PM Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 21/12/2022 13:47, Karthik Nayak wrote:
>>> Since we use a tree-ish object, the user can pass "--revision
>>> HEAD:subdirectory" and all the attributes will be looked up as if
>>> subdirectory was the root directory of the repository.
>>
>> We should be clear in the documentation and option help that --revision
>> takes a tree-ish (i.e. --revision=<tree-ish>). Maybe calling the option
>> --tree would be clearer.
> 
> If that's the case, shouldn't this be called --source (or some
> variation thereof) for consistency[1] with git-restore?

Yes, that's a good suggestion, sorry I'd forgotten that you'd mentioned 
that before.

> [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAPig+cT_xz3m-3kkL_Scf0opNXkikU94kSF46VO8KHkNMWbGzg@mail.gmail.com/
> 
>>> +attr_check_revision () {
>>> +     path="$1" expect="$2" revision="$3" git_opts="$4" &&
>>
>> Is that line valid posix shell? I know it works with local (which is not
>> in posix) but is it allowed for global variables?
> 
> This is fine as-is; it's POSIX.

Thanks for clarifying that

Best Wishes

Phillip
Karthik Nayak Dec. 23, 2022, 10:43 a.m. UTC | #4
Hello Phillip,

On Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 9:57 PM Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Since we use a tree-ish object, the user can pass "--revision
> > HEAD:subdirectory" and all the attributes will be looked up as if
> > subdirectory was the root directory of the repository.
>
> We should be clear in the documentation and option help that --revision
> takes a tree-ish (i.e. --revision=<tree-ish>). Maybe calling the option
> --tree would be clearer.
>

I think we had a discussion around this a bit earlier in the series.
https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAOLa=ZTSzUh2Ma_EMHHWcDunGyKMaUW9BaG=QdegtMqLd+69Wg@mail.gmail.com/

Mostly, that the idea of using `--revision` was taken from
`git-svn(1)`. I'm good to make that change,
what do you think would be best? `--source` or `-tree`? I like
`--tree` better, but I'm open to suggestions.

>
> The implementation looks good apart from failing to bail out if it
> cannot parse the argument to --revision (perhaps we should add a test
> for that). I've left a few suggestions below.
>

Thank you for the review!

> > Signed-off-by: Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
> > Signed-off-by: Toon Claes <toon@iotcl.com>
> > Co-authored-by: toon@iotcl.com
>
> > diff --git a/attr.c b/attr.c
> > index 42ad6de8c7..6c69e82080 100644
> > --- a/attr.c
> > +++ b/attr.c
> > @@ -11,8 +11,12 @@
> >   #include "exec-cmd.h"
> >   #include "attr.h"
> >   #include "dir.h"
> > +#include "strbuf.h"
> > +#include "tree-walk.h"
>
> These new includes are not required.
>

Will remove!

>  > diff --git a/attr.h b/attr.h
>  > index 3fb40cced0..f4a2bedd68 100644
>  > --- a/attr.h
>  > +++ b/attr.h
>  > @@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
>  >  #ifndef ATTR_H
>  >  #define ATTR_H
>  >
>  > +#include "hash.h"
>
> This include is not required.
>

Will remove!

> > diff --git a/builtin/check-attr.c b/builtin/check-attr.c
> > index 0fef10eb6b..04640e0297 100644
> > --- a/builtin/check-attr.c
> > +++ b/builtin/check-attr.c
> > @@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
> > +#include "repository.h"
>
> This include is not required. Also please add any new includes below
> cache.h as Junio has previously mentioned.
>

Understood. I missed this.

> > +     if (revision) {
> > +             tree_oid = xmalloc(sizeof(struct object_id));
>
> I think we prefer 'var = xmalloc(sizeof(*var));' to avoid errors if the
> type of var changes. This allocation does not appear to be freed
> anywhere. We could avoid the allocation by delcaring an automatic
> variable above and setting tree_oid to point to it here.
>

Understood, let me do that.

> > +             if (repo_get_oid_tree(the_repository, revision, tree_oid))
> > +                     error("%s: not a valid revision", revision);
>
> We should die() here rather than continuing with a bad tree.
>

Will switch to `die(...)`

> > +     git $git_opts check-attr --revision $revision test -- "$path" >actual 2>err &&
>
> err is never used. Should we be doing 'test_must_be_empty err'?
>

Yeah this makes sense, let me add it in.

> > +     echo "$path: test: $expect" >expect &&
> > +     test_cmp expect actual
> >   }
> >
> > [...]
> > +test_expect_success 'setup branches' '
> > +     (
> > +             echo "f test=f" &&
> > +             echo "a/i test=n"
> > +     )
>
> We'd normally write this as
>
>         test_write_lines "f test=f" "a/i test=n" | git hash-object ...
>
> However I think it would be simpler to create the commit with something like
>
> mkdir -p foo/bar &&
> test_commit --printf "add .gitattributes" foo/bar/.gitattributes \
>         "t test=f\na/i test=n\n" tag-1 &&
> rm -r foo/bar/.gitattributes
>
> which would also reduce the number of processes. Failing that a helper
> function to reduce the duplication would be a good idea.
>

Thanks for this, my method was mostly put together with what I could make work,
this is much cleaner. We don't need to ` rm -r foo/bar/.gitattributes`
as far as I see.

> | git hash-object -w --stdin >id &&
> > +     git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644,$(cat id),foo/bar/.gitattributes &&
> > +     git write-tree >id &&
> > +     tree_id=$(cat id) &&
>
> For future reference it is perfectly fine to write
>         tree_oid=$(git write-tree) &&
>
> as we will still detect a non-zero exit code from git.
>

Noted.

> > +     git commit-tree $tree_id -m "random commit message" >id &&
> > +     commit_id=$(cat id) &&
> > +     git update-ref refs/heads/branch1 $commit_id &&
> > +
> > +     (
> > +             echo "g test=g" &&
> > +             echo "a/i test=m"
> > +     ) | git hash-object -w --stdin >id &&
> > +     git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644,$(cat id),foo/bar/.gitattributes &&
> > +     git write-tree >id &&
> > +     tree_id=$(cat id) &&
> > +     git commit-tree $tree_id -m "random commit message" >id &&
> > +     commit_id=$(cat id) &&
> > +     git update-ref refs/heads/branch2 $commit_id
> > +'
> > [...]
> >   test_expect_success 'setup bare' '
> >       git clone --template= --bare . bare.git
> >   '
> > @@ -306,6 +347,27 @@ test_expect_success 'bare repository: check that .gitattribute is ignored' '
> >       )
> >   '
> >
> > +test_expect_success 'bare repository: with --revision' '
> > +     (
> > +             cd bare.git &&
>
> You could create a bare clone of the existing repo rather than having to
> recreate the commits here.
>

Makes sense, let me simplify this too.
Karthik Nayak Dec. 23, 2022, 10:44 a.m. UTC | #5
On Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 10:13 PM Eric Sunshine <sunshine@sunshineco.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 3:58 PM Phillip Wood <phillip.wood123@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 21/12/2022 13:47, Karthik Nayak wrote:
> > > Since we use a tree-ish object, the user can pass "--revision
> > > HEAD:subdirectory" and all the attributes will be looked up as if
> > > subdirectory was the root directory of the repository.
> >
> > We should be clear in the documentation and option help that --revision
> > takes a tree-ish (i.e. --revision=<tree-ish>). Maybe calling the option
> > --tree would be clearer.
>
> If that's the case, shouldn't this be called --source (or some
> variation thereof) for consistency[1] with git-restore?
>
> [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/git/CAPig+cT_xz3m-3kkL_Scf0opNXkikU94kSF46VO8KHkNMWbGzg@mail.gmail.com/
>

Let me rename it to source, and we can discuss on the next version if
the name suits or not.
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt b/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
index 84f41a8e82..174019c71d 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-check-attr.txt
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@  git-check-attr - Display gitattributes information
 SYNOPSIS
 --------
 [verse]
-'git check-attr' [-a | --all | <attr>...] [--] <pathname>...
-'git check-attr' --stdin [-z] [-a | --all | <attr>...]
+'git check-attr' [--revision <revision>] [-a | --all | <attr>...] [--] <pathname>...
+'git check-attr' --stdin [-z] [--revision <revision>] [-a | --all | <attr>...]
 
 DESCRIPTION
 -----------
@@ -36,6 +36,11 @@  OPTIONS
 	If `--stdin` is also given, input paths are separated
 	with a NUL character instead of a linefeed character.
 
+--revision=<revision>::
+	Check attributes against the specified commit. All the attributes will
+	be checked against the provided revision. Paths provided as part of the
+	revision will be treated as the root directory.
+
 \--::
 	Interpret all preceding arguments as attributes and all following
 	arguments as path names.
diff --git a/archive.c b/archive.c
index 941495f5d7..81ff76fce9 100644
--- a/archive.c
+++ b/archive.c
@@ -120,7 +120,7 @@  static const struct attr_check *get_archive_attrs(struct index_state *istate,
 	static struct attr_check *check;
 	if (!check)
 		check = attr_check_initl("export-ignore", "export-subst", NULL);
-	git_check_attr(istate, path, check);
+	git_check_attr(istate, NULL, path, check);
 	return check;
 }
 
diff --git a/attr.c b/attr.c
index 42ad6de8c7..6c69e82080 100644
--- a/attr.c
+++ b/attr.c
@@ -11,8 +11,12 @@ 
 #include "exec-cmd.h"
 #include "attr.h"
 #include "dir.h"
+#include "strbuf.h"
+#include "tree-walk.h"
 #include "utf8.h"
 #include "quote.h"
+#include "revision.h"
+#include "object-store.h"
 #include "thread-utils.h"
 
 const char git_attr__true[] = "(builtin)true";
@@ -729,14 +733,62 @@  static struct attr_stack *read_attr_from_file(const char *path, unsigned flags)
 	return res;
 }
 
-static struct attr_stack *read_attr_from_index(struct index_state *istate,
-					       const char *path,
-					       unsigned flags)
+static struct attr_stack *read_attr_from_buf(char *buf, const char *path,
+					     unsigned flags)
 {
 	struct attr_stack *res;
-	char *buf, *sp;
+	char *sp;
 	int lineno = 0;
 
+	if (!buf)
+		return NULL;
+
+	CALLOC_ARRAY(res, 1);
+	for (sp = buf; *sp;) {
+		char *ep;
+		int more;
+
+		ep = strchrnul(sp, '\n');
+		more = (*ep == '\n');
+		*ep = '\0';
+		handle_attr_line(res, sp, path, ++lineno, flags);
+		sp = ep + more;
+	}
+	free(buf);
+
+	return res;
+}
+
+static struct attr_stack *read_attr_from_blob(struct index_state *istate,
+					      const struct object_id *tree_oid,
+					      const char *path, unsigned flags)
+{
+	struct object_id oid;
+	unsigned long sz;
+	enum object_type type;
+	void *buf;
+	unsigned short mode;
+
+	if (!tree_oid)
+		return NULL;
+
+	if (get_tree_entry(istate->repo, tree_oid, path, &oid, &mode))
+		return NULL;
+
+	buf = read_object_file(&oid, &type, &sz);
+	if (!buf || type != OBJ_BLOB) {
+		free(buf);
+		return NULL;
+	}
+
+	return read_attr_from_buf(buf, path, flags);
+}
+
+static struct attr_stack *read_attr_from_index(struct index_state *istate,
+					       const char *path, unsigned flags)
+{
+	char *buf;
+
 	if (!istate)
 		return NULL;
 
@@ -758,28 +810,19 @@  static struct attr_stack *read_attr_from_index(struct index_state *istate,
 	if (!buf)
 		return NULL;
 
-	CALLOC_ARRAY(res, 1);
-	for (sp = buf; *sp; ) {
-		char *ep;
-		int more;
-
-		ep = strchrnul(sp, '\n');
-		more = (*ep == '\n');
-		*ep = '\0';
-		handle_attr_line(res, sp, path, ++lineno, flags);
-		sp = ep + more;
-	}
-	free(buf);
-	return res;
+	return read_attr_from_buf(buf, path, flags);
 }
 
 static struct attr_stack *read_attr(struct index_state *istate,
+				    const struct object_id *tree_oid,
 				    const char *path, unsigned flags)
 {
 	struct attr_stack *res = NULL;
 
 	if (direction == GIT_ATTR_INDEX) {
 		res = read_attr_from_index(istate, path, flags);
+	} else if (tree_oid) {
+		res = read_attr_from_blob(istate, tree_oid, path, flags);
 	} else if (!is_bare_repository()) {
 		if (direction == GIT_ATTR_CHECKOUT) {
 			res = read_attr_from_index(istate, path, flags);
@@ -839,6 +882,7 @@  static void push_stack(struct attr_stack **attr_stack_p,
 }
 
 static void bootstrap_attr_stack(struct index_state *istate,
+				 const struct object_id *tree_oid,
 				 struct attr_stack **stack)
 {
 	struct attr_stack *e;
@@ -864,7 +908,7 @@  static void bootstrap_attr_stack(struct index_state *istate,
 	}
 
 	/* root directory */
-	e = read_attr(istate, GITATTRIBUTES_FILE, flags | READ_ATTR_NOFOLLOW);
+	e = read_attr(istate, tree_oid, GITATTRIBUTES_FILE, flags | READ_ATTR_NOFOLLOW);
 	push_stack(stack, e, xstrdup(""), 0);
 
 	/* info frame */
@@ -878,6 +922,7 @@  static void bootstrap_attr_stack(struct index_state *istate,
 }
 
 static void prepare_attr_stack(struct index_state *istate,
+			       const struct object_id *tree_oid,
 			       const char *path, int dirlen,
 			       struct attr_stack **stack)
 {
@@ -899,7 +944,7 @@  static void prepare_attr_stack(struct index_state *istate,
 	 * .gitattributes in deeper directories to shallower ones,
 	 * and finally use the built-in set as the default.
 	 */
-	bootstrap_attr_stack(istate, stack);
+	bootstrap_attr_stack(istate, tree_oid, stack);
 
 	/*
 	 * Pop the "info" one that is always at the top of the stack.
@@ -954,7 +999,7 @@  static void prepare_attr_stack(struct index_state *istate,
 		strbuf_add(&pathbuf, path + pathbuf.len, (len - pathbuf.len));
 		strbuf_addf(&pathbuf, "/%s", GITATTRIBUTES_FILE);
 
-		next = read_attr(istate, pathbuf.buf, READ_ATTR_NOFOLLOW);
+		next = read_attr(istate, tree_oid, pathbuf.buf, READ_ATTR_NOFOLLOW);
 
 		/* reset the pathbuf to not include "/.gitattributes" */
 		strbuf_setlen(&pathbuf, len);
@@ -1074,8 +1119,8 @@  static void determine_macros(struct all_attrs_item *all_attrs,
  * Otherwise all attributes are collected.
  */
 static void collect_some_attrs(struct index_state *istate,
-			       const char *path,
-			       struct attr_check *check)
+			       const struct object_id *tree_oid,
+			       const char *path, struct attr_check *check)
 {
 	int pathlen, rem, dirlen;
 	const char *cp, *last_slash = NULL;
@@ -1094,7 +1139,7 @@  static void collect_some_attrs(struct index_state *istate,
 		dirlen = 0;
 	}
 
-	prepare_attr_stack(istate, path, dirlen, &check->stack);
+	prepare_attr_stack(istate, tree_oid, path, dirlen, &check->stack);
 	all_attrs_init(&g_attr_hashmap, check);
 	determine_macros(check->all_attrs, check->stack);
 
@@ -1103,12 +1148,12 @@  static void collect_some_attrs(struct index_state *istate,
 }
 
 void git_check_attr(struct index_state *istate,
-		    const char *path,
+		    const struct object_id *tree_oid, const char *path,
 		    struct attr_check *check)
 {
 	int i;
 
-	collect_some_attrs(istate, path, check);
+	collect_some_attrs(istate, tree_oid, path, check);
 
 	for (i = 0; i < check->nr; i++) {
 		size_t n = check->items[i].attr->attr_nr;
@@ -1119,13 +1164,13 @@  void git_check_attr(struct index_state *istate,
 	}
 }
 
-void git_all_attrs(struct index_state *istate,
+void git_all_attrs(struct index_state *istate, const struct object_id *tree_oid,
 		   const char *path, struct attr_check *check)
 {
 	int i;
 
 	attr_check_reset(check);
-	collect_some_attrs(istate, path, check);
+	collect_some_attrs(istate, tree_oid, path, check);
 
 	for (i = 0; i < check->all_attrs_nr; i++) {
 		const char *name = check->all_attrs[i].attr->name;
diff --git a/attr.h b/attr.h
index 3fb40cced0..f4a2bedd68 100644
--- a/attr.h
+++ b/attr.h
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@ 
 #ifndef ATTR_H
 #define ATTR_H
 
+#include "hash.h"
+
 /**
  * gitattributes mechanism gives a uniform way to associate various attributes
  * to set of paths.
@@ -190,13 +192,14 @@  void attr_check_free(struct attr_check *check);
 const char *git_attr_name(const struct git_attr *);
 
 void git_check_attr(struct index_state *istate,
-		    const char *path, struct attr_check *check);
+		    const struct object_id *tree_oid, const char *path,
+		    struct attr_check *check);
 
 /*
  * Retrieve all attributes that apply to the specified path.
  * check holds the attributes and their values.
  */
-void git_all_attrs(struct index_state *istate,
+void git_all_attrs(struct index_state *istate, const struct object_id *tree_oid,
 		   const char *path, struct attr_check *check);
 
 enum git_attr_direction {
diff --git a/builtin/check-attr.c b/builtin/check-attr.c
index 0fef10eb6b..04640e0297 100644
--- a/builtin/check-attr.c
+++ b/builtin/check-attr.c
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@ 
+#include "repository.h"
 #define USE_THE_INDEX_VARIABLE
 #include "builtin.h"
 #include "cache.h"
@@ -9,9 +10,10 @@ 
 static int all_attrs;
 static int cached_attrs;
 static int stdin_paths;
+static char *revision;
 static const char * const check_attr_usage[] = {
-N_("git check-attr [-a | --all | <attr>...] [--] <pathname>..."),
-N_("git check-attr --stdin [-z] [-a | --all | <attr>...]"),
+N_("git check-attr [--revision <revision>] [-a | --all | <attr>...] [--] <pathname>..."),
+N_("git check-attr --stdin [-z] [--revision <revision>] [-a | --all | <attr>...]"),
 NULL
 };
 
@@ -23,6 +25,7 @@  static const struct option check_attr_options[] = {
 	OPT_BOOL(0 , "stdin", &stdin_paths, N_("read file names from stdin")),
 	OPT_BOOL('z', NULL, &nul_term_line,
 		 N_("terminate input and output records by a NUL character")),
+	OPT_STRING(0, "revision", &revision, N_("revision"), N_("check attributes at this revision")),
 	OPT_END()
 };
 
@@ -55,27 +58,26 @@  static void output_attr(struct attr_check *check, const char *file)
 	}
 }
 
-static void check_attr(const char *prefix,
-		       struct attr_check *check,
-		       int collect_all,
+static void check_attr(const char *prefix, struct attr_check *check,
+		       const struct object_id *tree_oid, int collect_all,
 		       const char *file)
+
 {
 	char *full_path =
 		prefix_path(prefix, prefix ? strlen(prefix) : 0, file);
 
 	if (collect_all) {
-		git_all_attrs(&the_index, full_path, check);
+		git_all_attrs(&the_index, tree_oid, full_path, check);
 	} else {
-		git_check_attr(&the_index, full_path, check);
+		git_check_attr(&the_index, tree_oid, full_path, check);
 	}
 	output_attr(check, file);
 
 	free(full_path);
 }
 
-static void check_attr_stdin_paths(const char *prefix,
-				   struct attr_check *check,
-				   int collect_all)
+static void check_attr_stdin_paths(const char *prefix, struct attr_check *check,
+				   const struct object_id *tree_oid, int collect_all)
 {
 	struct strbuf buf = STRBUF_INIT;
 	struct strbuf unquoted = STRBUF_INIT;
@@ -89,7 +91,7 @@  static void check_attr_stdin_paths(const char *prefix,
 				die("line is badly quoted");
 			strbuf_swap(&buf, &unquoted);
 		}
-		check_attr(prefix, check, collect_all, buf.buf);
+		check_attr(prefix, check, tree_oid, collect_all, buf.buf);
 		maybe_flush_or_die(stdout, "attribute to stdout");
 	}
 	strbuf_release(&buf);
@@ -105,6 +107,7 @@  static NORETURN void error_with_usage(const char *msg)
 int cmd_check_attr(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 {
 	struct attr_check *check;
+	struct object_id *tree_oid = NULL;
 	int cnt, i, doubledash, filei;
 
 	if (!is_bare_repository())
@@ -176,11 +179,18 @@  int cmd_check_attr(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 		}
 	}
 
+	if (revision) {
+		tree_oid = xmalloc(sizeof(struct object_id));
+
+		if (repo_get_oid_tree(the_repository, revision, tree_oid))
+			error("%s: not a valid revision", revision);
+	}
+
 	if (stdin_paths)
-		check_attr_stdin_paths(prefix, check, all_attrs);
+		check_attr_stdin_paths(prefix, check, tree_oid, all_attrs);
 	else {
 		for (i = filei; i < argc; i++)
-			check_attr(prefix, check, all_attrs, argv[i]);
+			check_attr(prefix, check, tree_oid, all_attrs, argv[i]);
 		maybe_flush_or_die(stdout, "attribute to stdout");
 	}
 
diff --git a/builtin/pack-objects.c b/builtin/pack-objects.c
index 573d0b20b7..89535cfa6a 100644
--- a/builtin/pack-objects.c
+++ b/builtin/pack-objects.c
@@ -1318,7 +1318,7 @@  static int no_try_delta(const char *path)
 
 	if (!check)
 		check = attr_check_initl("delta", NULL);
-	git_check_attr(the_repository->index, path, check);
+	git_check_attr(the_repository->index, NULL, path, check);
 	if (ATTR_FALSE(check->items[0].value))
 		return 1;
 	return 0;
diff --git a/convert.c b/convert.c
index 9b67649032..a54d1690c0 100644
--- a/convert.c
+++ b/convert.c
@@ -1308,7 +1308,7 @@  void convert_attrs(struct index_state *istate,
 		git_config(read_convert_config, NULL);
 	}
 
-	git_check_attr(istate, path, check);
+	git_check_attr(istate, NULL, path, check);
 	ccheck = check->items;
 	ca->crlf_action = git_path_check_crlf(ccheck + 4);
 	if (ca->crlf_action == CRLF_UNDEFINED)
diff --git a/ll-merge.c b/ll-merge.c
index 22a603e8af..130d26501c 100644
--- a/ll-merge.c
+++ b/ll-merge.c
@@ -391,7 +391,7 @@  enum ll_merge_result ll_merge(mmbuffer_t *result_buf,
 		normalize_file(theirs, path, istate);
 	}
 
-	git_check_attr(istate, path, check);
+	git_check_attr(istate, NULL, path, check);
 	ll_driver_name = check->items[0].value;
 	if (check->items[1].value) {
 		marker_size = atoi(check->items[1].value);
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@  int ll_merge_marker_size(struct index_state *istate, const char *path)
 
 	if (!check)
 		check = attr_check_initl("conflict-marker-size", NULL);
-	git_check_attr(istate, path, check);
+	git_check_attr(istate, NULL, path, check);
 	if (check->items[0].value) {
 		marker_size = atoi(check->items[0].value);
 		if (marker_size <= 0)
diff --git a/pathspec.c b/pathspec.c
index 46e77a85fe..48dec2c709 100644
--- a/pathspec.c
+++ b/pathspec.c
@@ -732,7 +732,7 @@  int match_pathspec_attrs(struct index_state *istate,
 	if (name[namelen])
 		name = to_free = xmemdupz(name, namelen);
 
-	git_check_attr(istate, name, item->attr_check);
+	git_check_attr(istate, NULL, name, item->attr_check);
 
 	free(to_free);
 
diff --git a/t/t0003-attributes.sh b/t/t0003-attributes.sh
index b3aabb8aa3..6e6a909a46 100755
--- a/t/t0003-attributes.sh
+++ b/t/t0003-attributes.sh
@@ -25,7 +25,14 @@  attr_check_quote () {
 	git check-attr test -- "$path" >actual &&
 	echo "\"$quoted_path\": test: $expect" >expect &&
 	test_cmp expect actual
+}
+
+attr_check_revision () {
+	path="$1" expect="$2" revision="$3" git_opts="$4" &&
 
+	git $git_opts check-attr --revision $revision test -- "$path" >actual 2>err &&
+	echo "$path: test: $expect" >expect &&
+	test_cmp expect actual
 }
 
 test_expect_success 'open-quoted pathname' '
@@ -33,7 +40,6 @@  test_expect_success 'open-quoted pathname' '
 	attr_check a unspecified
 '
 
-
 test_expect_success 'setup' '
 	mkdir -p a/b/d a/c b &&
 	(
@@ -80,12 +86,38 @@  test_expect_success 'setup' '
 	EOF
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'setup branches' '
+	(
+		echo "f	test=f" &&
+		echo "a/i test=n"
+	) | git hash-object -w --stdin >id &&
+	git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644,$(cat id),foo/bar/.gitattributes &&
+	git write-tree >id &&
+	tree_id=$(cat id) &&
+	git commit-tree $tree_id -m "random commit message" >id &&
+	commit_id=$(cat id) &&
+	git update-ref refs/heads/branch1 $commit_id &&
+
+	(
+		echo "g test=g" &&
+		echo "a/i test=m"
+	) | git hash-object -w --stdin >id &&
+	git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644,$(cat id),foo/bar/.gitattributes &&
+	git write-tree >id &&
+	tree_id=$(cat id) &&
+	git commit-tree $tree_id -m "random commit message" >id &&
+	commit_id=$(cat id) &&
+	git update-ref refs/heads/branch2 $commit_id
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'command line checks' '
 	test_must_fail git check-attr &&
 	test_must_fail git check-attr -- &&
 	test_must_fail git check-attr test &&
 	test_must_fail git check-attr test -- &&
 	test_must_fail git check-attr -- f &&
+	test_must_fail git check-attr --revision &&
+	test_must_fail git check-attr --revision not-a-valid-ref &&
 	echo "f" | test_must_fail git check-attr --stdin &&
 	echo "f" | test_must_fail git check-attr --stdin -- f &&
 	echo "f" | test_must_fail git check-attr --stdin test -- f &&
@@ -287,6 +319,15 @@  test_expect_success 'using --git-dir and --work-tree' '
 	)
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'using --revision' '
+	attr_check_revision foo/bar/f f branch1 &&
+	attr_check_revision foo/bar/a/i n branch1 &&
+	attr_check_revision foo/bar/f unspecified branch2 &&
+	attr_check_revision foo/bar/a/i m branch2 &&
+	attr_check_revision foo/bar/g g branch2 &&
+	attr_check_revision foo/bar/g unspecified branch1
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'setup bare' '
 	git clone --template= --bare . bare.git
 '
@@ -306,6 +347,27 @@  test_expect_success 'bare repository: check that .gitattribute is ignored' '
 	)
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'bare repository: with --revision' '
+	(
+		cd bare.git &&
+		(
+			echo "f	test=f" &&
+			echo "a/i test=a/i"
+		) | git hash-object -w --stdin >id &&
+		git update-index --add --cacheinfo 100644 $(cat id) .gitattributes &&
+		git write-tree >id &&
+		tree_id=$(cat id) &&
+		git commit-tree $tree_id -m "random commit message" >id &&
+		commit_id=$(cat id) &&
+		git update-ref refs/heads/master $commit_id &&
+		attr_check_revision f f HEAD &&
+		attr_check_revision a/f f HEAD &&
+		attr_check_revision a/c/f f HEAD &&
+		attr_check_revision a/i a/i HEAD &&
+		attr_check_revision subdir/a/i unspecified HEAD
+	)
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'bare repository: check that --cached honors index' '
 	(
 		cd bare.git &&
diff --git a/userdiff.c b/userdiff.c
index 151d9a5278..b66f090a0b 100644
--- a/userdiff.c
+++ b/userdiff.c
@@ -412,7 +412,7 @@  struct userdiff_driver *userdiff_find_by_path(struct index_state *istate,
 		check = attr_check_initl("diff", NULL);
 	if (!path)
 		return NULL;
-	git_check_attr(istate, path, check);
+	git_check_attr(istate, NULL, path, check);
 
 	if (ATTR_TRUE(check->items[0].value))
 		return &driver_true;
diff --git a/ws.c b/ws.c
index 6e69877f25..eadbbe5667 100644
--- a/ws.c
+++ b/ws.c
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@  unsigned whitespace_rule(struct index_state *istate, const char *pathname)
 	if (!attr_whitespace_rule)
 		attr_whitespace_rule = attr_check_initl("whitespace", NULL);
 
-	git_check_attr(istate, pathname, attr_whitespace_rule);
+	git_check_attr(istate, NULL, pathname, attr_whitespace_rule);
 	value = attr_whitespace_rule->items[0].value;
 	if (ATTR_TRUE(value)) {
 		/* true (whitespace) */