Let’s say you are working with a Git add command and suddenly receive the warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF. What should you do? Let’s find out with this guide.

A line feed (LF) is used in Unix systems to indicate a line’s end. Meanwhile, a line is typically expressed in a Windows-based system using carriage return (CR) and line feed.

Suppose you utilize a Windows device, make changes to the code, and then commit it; this code will be substituted by CRLF as Git doesn’t expect you will utilize LF on Windows operating system.

What To Do When Getting Warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF

You will probably experience line-ending problems if you develop on Windows and collaborate with others who do not. It is because Windows employs both CRs and LFs in the files, while Linux and Mac systems only use LFs.

This issue is a minor but highly frustrating aspect of cross-platform work. When a user presses enter, many Windows editors discreetly insert both CRLF and LF line endings or replace any existing LF ends with CRLF.

You can disable this warning by entering the code below in the Git command line if you work on a Windows PC and don’t mind that Git converts LFs to CRLFs automatically.

git config core.autocrlf true

How Git Handle Warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF

Git can manage this by automatically converting CRLF line endings to LF when a file is added to the index and when the file is checked out onto the file system. This feature can be activated using core.autocrlf. Suppose you work with a Windows PC; set it to true to convert LF ends to CRLF when checking out the code.

git config --global core.autocrlf true

If you are using a Mac or Linux system, you wouldn’t want Git to convert LF ends when checking out the files. However, Git should be used to correct any CRLF-ending files that are mistakenly added. On commit, you can instruct the Git software to convert the CRLF to LF, but not vice versa, using the below code.

git config --global core.autocrlf input

With this configuration, your Windows checkouts should have CRLF endings, whereas Linux and Mac computers should have LF endings. Suppose you are working on Windows-only projects; you can disable this feature and record the CRs by changing the configuration option to false with this code.

git config --global core.autocrlf false

You can disable this feature by inserting the following code into your Git core configuration.

git config core.autocrlf false

Still, utilizing the code below to remove the warnings would be preferable.

git config core.autocrlf true

The Bottom Line

Now you know what to do when you receive the warning: LF will be replaced by CRLF. Hopefully, all your confusion has been cleared out after reading this guide.

Bonus: We can also help you if you encounter other warnings, such as value for scheme.headers does not match or ignoring invalid distribution. Check the guides out to see how you can solve these issues.