.gitattributes override is not accepted

[danielmarschall]

Hello,

I have edited my .gitattributes file in order to define the languages for my code files.
However, linguist seems to ignore the linguist-language attributes.

Here is my .gitattributes file:
https://github.com/danielmarschall/filter_foundry/blob/master/.gitattributes

Example 1:
https://github.com/danielmarschall/filter_foundry/search?l=c%2B%2B
scripting.h is reported as C++, but I have stated in .gitattributes that *.h is C.
Also, I do not understand why linguist thinks that it is C++ since it is plain C.

Example 2:
https://github.com/danielmarschall/filter_foundry/search?l=Makefile
There are 3 files listed, but in .gitattributes I have also defined other files which are also Makefiles, e.g. "Makefile.mac" which is missing.

I have also re-commited everything so that all files get re-indexed. But it didn't help

git ls-files -z '[^.]*' | xargs -0 rm; git checkout -- .
git commit -a
git push --mirror ...

What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for your help.

[lildude]

The first thing to point out is anything with search in the URL is from Search and is completely independent of Linguist so can take time to update to reflect changes to languages when implementing an override. Generally modifying the files in question result in them being reindexed with the updated language.

With that in mind, if we take Search completely out of the question, we can see your overrides are accepted and working:

$ github-linguist . --breakdown
82.56%  451344     C
7.21%   39399      R
5.19%   28348      Makefile
1.84%   10063      C++
1.43%   7810       Batchfile
1.15%   6306       Yacc
0.63%   3435       Lex

Batchfile:
3264_mixer/foundry_3264_mixer.bat
3264_mixer/foundry_3264_mixer_manual.bat
make_mingw32.bat
visual_studio/vc_make_3264.bat

C++:
3264_mixer/foundry_3264_mixer.cpp

R:
68k.r
PiPL_carbon.r
PiPL_classic.r
PiPL_macho.r
PiPL_universal.r
pipl_common.r
scripting.r
ui_mac.r

Makefile:
FilterFoundry.make
Makefile.mac
Makefile.win
visual_studio/nmake.mak
visual_studio/nmake64.mak

C:
PARM.h
c.h
cwprefix.h
ff.h
ff_misc.h
funcs.c
funcs.h
load_mac.c
load_win.c
main.c
make.c
make_mac.c
make_win.c
manifest.c
manifest.h
node.c
node.h
obfusc.c
preview.c
preview.h
preview_mac.c
process.c
read.c
save.c
scripting.c
scripting.h
symtab.c
symtab.h
telegraphics_common/adobeplugin/A4Stuff.h
telegraphics_common/adobeplugin/dllmain.c
telegraphics_common/adobeplugin/entry.h
telegraphics_common/adobeplugin/world.h
telegraphics_common/tt/calc_std_state.c
telegraphics_common/tt/calc_std_state.h
telegraphics_common/tt/carbonstuff.h
telegraphics_common/tt/choosefile.h
telegraphics_common/tt/choosefile_mac.c
telegraphics_common/tt/choosefile_nav.c
telegraphics_common/tt/choosefile_sf.c
telegraphics_common/tt/choosefile_win.c
telegraphics_common/tt/compat_string.c
telegraphics_common/tt/compat_string.h
telegraphics_common/tt/compat_win.c
telegraphics_common/tt/compat_win.h
telegraphics_common/tt/dbg.h
telegraphics_common/tt/dbg_mac.c
telegraphics_common/tt/dbg_win.c
telegraphics_common/tt/dlg.c
telegraphics_common/tt/dlg.h
telegraphics_common/tt/file_compat.h
telegraphics_common/tt/file_compat_unix.c
telegraphics_common/tt/file_compat_win.c
telegraphics_common/tt/menu.c
telegraphics_common/tt/menu.h
telegraphics_common/tt/misc-mac.c
telegraphics_common/tt/misc-mac.h
telegraphics_common/tt/misc.c
telegraphics_common/tt/misc.h
telegraphics_common/tt/qd.c
telegraphics_common/tt/qd.h
telegraphics_common/tt/scroll.c
telegraphics_common/tt/scroll.h
telegraphics_common/tt/sprintf_tiny.c
telegraphics_common/tt/sprintf_tiny.h
telegraphics_common/tt/str.c
telegraphics_common/tt/str.h
telegraphics_common/tt/ui_compat.h
telegraphics_common/tt/ui_compat_mac.c
telegraphics_common/tt/ui_compat_win.c
telegraphics_common/tt/wind.c
telegraphics_common/tt/wind.h
ui.c
ui.h
ui_build.c
ui_build_win.c
ui_mac.c
ui_win.c
unistd.h
version.h
versioninfo_modify_win.c
versioninfo_modify_win.h
wpj/sdkddkver.h

Lex:
lexer.l

Yacc:
parser.y

$

As you can see both of your examples have taken effect from a Linguist perspective and the sidebar percentage breakdown reflects this... the results of the links however won't as that's Search as previously mentioned.

So from a Linguist perspective, everything is working as expected and your overrides have taken effect.

As an aside:

Also, I do not understand why linguist thinks that it is C++ since it is plain C.

We've got you covered: https://github.com/github/linguist/blob/master/docs/troubleshooting.md#my-ccobjective-c-h-header-file-is-detected-as-the-wrong-language 😄 It's probably got something within it that matches the C++ heuristic, hence the classification.

[danielmarschall]

Thank you very much for your detailed answer!