Re: Magit reports binary files that don't exist

[Thorsten Jolitz]

Yuri Khan <yuri.v.khan@gmail.com> writes:

> On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 11:06 PM, Thorsten Jolitz <tjolitz@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Its relatively new for me too, and I'm managing hundreds of .el files too
>> for quite some time now.
>
> Open up the log in gitk. Find a file that is detected as binary.
> Right-click it in the bottom right frame, select “Highlight this
> only”. This will highlight all commits where this file is modified
> with bold in the top frame. (Why gitk and not magit? Because gitk
> shows you a list of commits and the diff in one window, and you can
> just press the down arrow until you hit the commit you’re looking for.
> Magit only shows you the list of commits and you have to press Enter
> or Space on each in order to see diffs.)
>
> Now follow the trail. Several topmost commits will report that the
> file is binary and that it changed. Eventually, though, you will find
> the first commit that introduced binariness to this file.
>
> Check out that commit. Look at the file. Maybe do a ‘diff -au’ against
> its previous version (when it was still text). Look what changed.
> Think which specific change could make a text file binary.

I'm only working on the console, so I cannot use the mouse. But I will
follow your recipe anyway, although it seems likely now that my use of
literal NUL chars in regexps convinced git that my .el files are binary
files. 

Thanks for the tip. 

-- 
cheers,
Thorsten