How to fix warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF in file.txt in Git

First, recognize this is a warning, not an error. Git is telling you it will automatically handle line ending conversion. Check your current autocrlf setting:

git config --get core.autocrlf

Common values:
- true: Convert LF to CRLF on checkout, CRLF to LF on commit (Windows default)
- input: Convert CRLF to LF on commit, no conversion on checkout (recommended for Unix)
- false: No automatic conversion

The warning appears because Git found a mismatch between the file's current line endings and what it will become after conversion.

If you understand the conversion and just want to hide the warning, you can disable it:

# Suppress the safecrlf warning
git config --global core.safecrlf false

Or suppress only in the current repository:

git config core.safecrlf false

Note: This hides the warning but doesn't change how Git handles line endings.

Set the autocrlf value that matches your workflow:

For Windows users (recommended):

git config --global core.autocrlf true

This converts LF to CRLF on checkout and back to LF on commit, keeping repository files with LF while your working copy uses Windows-native CRLF.

For Linux/macOS users (recommended):

git config --global core.autocrlf input

This converts any CRLF to LF on commit but doesn't touch files on checkout.

To disable all conversion:

git config --global core.autocrlf false

Use this if you want complete control or if your project handles line endings via .gitattributes.

The best solution is to add a .gitattributes file to your repository root. This ensures everyone uses the same line ending settings regardless of their local Git configuration:

# .gitattributes - normalize all text files
* text=auto

# Explicitly declare text files
*.txt text
*.md text
*.json text
*.xml text
*.html text
*.css text
*.js text
*.ts text
*.py text
*.sh text eol=lf
*.bat text eol=crlf

# Declare binary files
*.png binary
*.jpg binary
*.gif binary
*.ico binary
*.pdf binary
*.zip binary

The text=auto setting lets Git detect text files and normalize their line endings. Use eol=lf or eol=crlf to force specific endings for certain file types.

If your repository already has mixed line endings, you can normalize them after adding .gitattributes:

# Save any uncommitted changes first
git stash

# Remove all files from the index
git rm --cached -r .

# Re-add all files (this applies .gitattributes rules)
git reset --hard

# Check if there are changes to commit
git status

If Git shows modified files after this process, commit them:

git add .
git commit -m "Normalize line endings"

Some files need specific line endings regardless of the operating system:

Shell scripts should always use LF:

# In .gitattributes
*.sh text eol=lf
*.bash text eol=lf
Makefile text eol=lf

Windows batch files should always use CRLF:

# In .gitattributes
*.bat text eol=crlf
*.cmd text eol=crlf
*.ps1 text eol=crlf

This prevents issues where shell scripts fail on Unix because they have CRLF endings.

To check what line endings a file currently has:

# Using file command (Unix/macOS/Git Bash)
file myfile.txt

Output shows "CRLF line terminators" or "ASCII text" (LF).

# Using cat -A to show special characters
cat -A myfile.txt | head -5

Lines ending with ^M$ have CRLF; lines ending with just $ have LF.

# Using od (octal dump) for detailed view
od -c myfile.txt | head

Look for \r\n (CRLF) vs just \n (LF).

If you need to convert a file's line endings without relying on Git:

Using dos2unix/unix2dos:

# Convert CRLF to LF
dos2unix myfile.txt

# Convert LF to CRLF
unix2dos myfile.txt

Using sed:

# Convert CRLF to LF
sed -i 's/\r$//' myfile.txt

# On macOS
sed -i '' 's/\r$//' myfile.txt

Using tr:

# Remove carriage returns
tr -d '\r' < input.txt > output.txt