How does Git deal with binary files?

Question

• Do I have to do something to tell Git whether some files are binary (like in Subversion)? Or, can Git handle binary data automatically?
• If I change the binary

Answer 1

1. Git can usually detect binary files automatically.
2. No, Git will attempt to store delta-based changesets if it's less expensive to (not always the case).
3. Submodules are used if you want to reference other Git repositories within your project.

Answer 2

git add my-binary-file
git commit
git push

Will add your binary file; it is automatic.

Indeed, if you have 100 versions of your file it will store it (but compressed).

You can use submodules to make references to other repositories.

Answer 3

Git uses a heuristic to try to determine if a file is a binary. See this article for more information and how to force git to treat a given file as a binary.

For good tutorial on submodules see here and here.

Answer 4

I had essentially the same problem: I wanted to git pickle files, which are binary, but git thinks they're text.

I found this chapter on Git Attributes in the Pro Git Book. So I resolved my issues by creating a .gitattributes file with this line:

*.pickle binary