Re: [PATCH/WIP] attr: make attributes depend on file type

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

The only downside is that it is technically a regression if somebody was
using gitattributes for the bizarrely named file "symlink:". It seems
pretty unlikely, but possibly we should be carving out a syntactic
namespace like:

  ^[a-z]+:

or even:

  ^[a-z]+(=[^:]*)?:

Or even '^:[a-z]+(=[^,=])?(,[a-z]+(=[^,=])?)*:' to

 (1) always have some special character at the beginning, to limit the
     extent of the damage to existing funny pathnames (i.e. to collide
     your pathname must begin with such a special character).  This also
     has a nice side effect of making it clear that something special is
     going on; and

 (2) allow more than one such special on the line, comma-separated.

But that is just a small bikeshed.  Other than that, I like what Michael
and you are aiming for (I am only commenting on the general direction at
this moment, as I haven't looked at the patch at all yet).