Document binary file patch formats that are different from text file
patch.
Signed-off-by: Bagas Sanjaya <redacted>
---
Documentation/git-format-patch.txt | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 22 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt b/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt
index 247033f8fc..8de172b1f4 100644
--- a/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git-format-patch.txt
@@ -725,6 +725,28 @@ diff format is described as below:
include::diff-generate-patch.txt[]
+Binary Files
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+For binary files, the diff format have some differences compared to text
+files:
+
+1. Object hashes in index header line (`index <hash>..<hash> <mode>`)
+ are always given in full form, as binary patch is designed to be
+ applied only to an exact copy of original file. This is to ensure
+ that such patch don't apply to file with similar name but different
+ hash.
+
+2. There are additional extended header lines specific to binary files:
+
+ GIT binary patch
+ delta <bytes>
+ literal <bytes>
+
+3. The diff body can be either delta or full (literal) content,
+ whichever is the smallest size. It is encoded with base85 algorithm,
+ and emitted in 64 characters each line. All but the last line in
+ the body are prefixed with `z`.
+
SEE ALSO
--------
linkgit:git-am[1], linkgit:git-send-email[1]
--
2.25.1