stripspace Git Command Guide

The git stripspace command removes unnecessary whitespace from the beginning and end of lines and collapses consecutive empty lines. It’s primarily used to clean up text input for Git operations like commit messages, patches, and other text processing tasks.

git stripspace Syntax:

git stripspace [<options>]

Options:

Option	Description
-s, --strip-comments	Strip comment lines starting with #
-c, --comment-lines	Prepend comment lines with #

Parameters:

None - reads from stdin, writes to stdout

Understanding Stripspace Operations:

Whitespace Processing:

Input Text Processing:
├── Leading/trailing whitespace: Removed from each line
├── Empty lines: Collapsed to single empty lines
├── Comment lines: Optionally stripped or added
├── Mixed whitespace: Normalized to spaces
└── Control characters: Preserved (except whitespace)

Processing Rules:

Stripspace Transformation Rules:
├── Remove all leading and trailing whitespace
├── Collapse multiple consecutive empty lines to one
├── Preserve single empty lines between content
├── Optionally strip lines starting with #
├── Optionally add # prefix to all lines
└── Normalize internal whitespace to single spaces

Use Cases:

Common Stripspace Applications:
├── Clean commit messages from editors
├── Process patch files for consistency
├── Normalize text for Git operations
├── Remove unwanted whitespace from input
├── Prepare text for further processing
└── Clean up user-generated content

Basic Stripspace Operations:

Standard Whitespace Cleaning:

# Clean text from stdin
echo -e "  line with spaces  \n\n\nempty lines\n\t\ttabs" | git stripspace

# Process file content
git stripspace < input.txt > output.txt

# Clean commit message
cat commit-msg.txt | git stripspace

Comment Processing:

# Strip comment lines
echo -e "# This is a comment\nActual content\n# Another comment" | git stripspace --strip-comments

# Add comment prefixes
echo -e "Line 1\nLine 2\nLine 3" | git stripspace --comment-lines

# Combine operations
echo -e "# Comment\n  Content  \n# Another" | git stripspace --strip-comments | git stripspace --comment-lines

Interactive Usage:

# Clean text interactively
git stripspace << 'EOF'
  This is a line with leading spaces
This is normal

Multiple empty lines above


Trailing spaces
# This is a comment
EOF

Advanced Stripspace Scenarios:

Commit Message Cleaning:

# Clean commit message from editor
clean_commit_message() {
    local message_file="$1"

    # Remove comments and clean whitespace
    git stripspace --strip-comments < "$message_file" | git stripspace > "${message_file}.clean"

    # Validate message
    if [ -s "${message_file}.clean" ]; then
        mv "${message_file}.clean" "$message_file"
        echo "Commit message cleaned"
    else
        rm "${message_file}.clean"
        echo "Empty commit message after cleaning"
        return 1
    fi
}

# Usage
clean_commit_message ".git/COMMIT_EDITMSG"

Patch Processing:

# Clean patch files
clean_patch() {
    local patch_file="$1"

    # Clean whitespace in patch
    git stripspace < "$patch_file" > "${patch_file}.clean"

    # Validate patch still applies
    if git apply --check "${patch_file}.clean" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        mv "${patch_file}.clean" "$patch_file"
        echo "Patch cleaned successfully"
    else
        rm "${patch_file}.clean"
        echo "Cleaning would break patch"
        return 1
    fi
}

clean_patch "my-changes.patch"

Text Normalization:

# Normalize text files
normalize_text() {
    local input_file="$1"
    local output_file="$2"

    # Clean whitespace and comments
    git stripspace --strip-comments < "$input_file" | git stripspace > "$output_file"

    echo "Text normalized: $input_file -> $output_file"
}

# Batch normalize files
for file in *.txt; do
    normalize_text "$file" "${file%.txt}.normalized.txt"
done

Configuration and Best Practices:

Git Configuration for Stripspace:

# Configure commit message cleaning
git config core.commentChar "#"

# Configure whitespace handling
git config core.whitespace "trailing-space,space-before-tab"

# Configure stripspace in hooks
# Add to .git/hooks/prepare-commit-msg
#!/bin/bash
git stripspace --strip-comments < "$1" | git stripspace > "$1.tmp"
mv "$1.tmp" "$1"

Stripspace Best Practices:

# Always clean commit messages
git stripspace --strip-comments < .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG

# Use in scripts for text processing
cleaned_text=$(echo "$user_input" | git stripspace)

# Combine with other text processing
echo "$text" | git stripspace | sed 's/pattern/replacement/'

# Validate before applying changes
original_checksum=$(sha256sum "$file")
git stripspace < "$file" > "$file.tmp"
if git apply --check "$file.tmp" >/dev/null 2>&1 2>&1; then
    mv "$file.tmp" "$file"
else
    rm "$file.tmp"
fi

Safe Stripspace Operations:

# Backup before processing
backup_and_clean() {
    local file="$1"
    cp "$file" "${file}.backup"

    if git stripspace < "$file" > "${file}.tmp"; then
        mv "${file}.tmp" "$file"
        echo "File cleaned successfully"
    else
        rm "${file}.tmp"
        echo "Cleaning failed, original preserved"
    fi
}

# Validate content after cleaning
validate_after_clean() {
    local file="$1"

    # Check file is not empty
    if [ ! -s "$file" ]; then
        echo "Error: File became empty after cleaning"
        return 1
    fi

    # Check basic structure preserved
    if ! head -1 "$file" | grep -q '[a-zA-Z0-9]'; then
        echo "Warning: First line appears to be empty"
    fi

    echo "File validation passed"
}

Integration with Development Workflows:

Git Hook Integration:

#!/bin/bash
# Git hooks using stripspace

# prepare-commit-msg hook
prepare_commit_msg() {
    # Clean commit message
    if [ -f "$1" ]; then
        git stripspace --strip-comments < "$1" | git stripspace > "$1.tmp"
        mv "$1.tmp" "$1"
    fi
}

# commit-msg hook
check_commit_msg() {
    # Validate commit message format
    msg=$(git stripspace --strip-comments < "$1" | git stripspace)

    # Check length
    if [ ${#msg} -gt 72 ]; then
        echo "Error: Commit message too long"
        exit 1
    fi

    # Check for content
    if [ -z "$msg" ]; then
        echo "Error: Empty commit message"
        exit 1
    fi
}

# pre-commit hook
pre_commit_checks() {
    # Clean staged files if needed
    # This is a simplified example
    echo "Running pre-commit checks..."

    # Check for whitespace issues
    if git diff --cached --check >/dev/null 2>&1; then
        echo "✓ No whitespace issues"
    else
        echo "⚠ Whitespace issues found"
        # Could auto-fix with git stripspace on specific files
    fi
}

# Usage in hooks
case "$0" in
    *prepare-commit-msg) prepare_commit_msg "$1" ;;
    *commit-msg) check_commit_msg "$1" ;;
    *pre-commit) pre_commit_checks ;;
esac

CI/CD Pipeline Integration:

# CI/CD pipeline text processing
ci_text_processing() {
    echo "=== CI/CD Text Processing ==="

    # Clean release notes
    if [ -f "RELEASE_NOTES.md" ]; then
        git stripspace < "RELEASE_NOTES.md" > "RELEASE_NOTES.clean.md"
        mv "RELEASE_NOTES.clean.md" "RELEASE_NOTES.md"
        echo "✓ Release notes cleaned"
    fi

    # Process commit messages
    if [ -n "$CI_COMMIT_MESSAGE" ]; then
        clean_msg=$(echo "$CI_COMMIT_MESSAGE" | git stripspace --strip-comments | git stripspace)
        export CI_COMMIT_MESSAGE="$clean_msg"
        echo "✓ Commit message cleaned"
    fi

    # Validate documentation
    for doc in docs/*.md; do
        if [ -f "$doc" ]; then
            # Check for excessive whitespace
            if grep -q '  \+$' "$doc"; then
                echo "⚠ Trailing whitespace in $doc"
                # Could auto-fix: git stripspace < "$doc" > "$doc.tmp" && mv "$doc.tmp" "$doc"
            fi
        fi
    done

    echo "CI/CD text processing complete"
}

ci_text_processing

Code Formatting Integration:

# Integrate with code formatting
format_code_and_docs() {
    echo "=== Code and Documentation Formatting ==="

    # Format documentation
    for doc in docs/*.md docs/*.txt; do
        if [ -f "$doc" ]; then
            echo "Formatting $doc"
            git stripspace < "$doc" > "$doc.tmp"

            # Additional formatting could be added here
            # e.g., markdown formatting, link checking, etc.

            mv "$doc.tmp" "$doc"
        fi
    done

    # Clean commit messages in history (dangerous - use carefully)
    echo "Note: Historical commit message cleaning requires manual intervention"
    echo "Use: git filter-branch --msg-filter 'git stripspace --strip-comments | git stripspace' HEAD"

    # Clean current commit message
    if [ -f ".git/COMMIT_EDITMSG" ]; then
        git stripspace --strip-comments < ".git/COMMIT_EDITMSG" | git stripspace > ".git/COMMIT_EDITMSG.tmp"
        mv ".git/COMMIT_EDITMSG.tmp" ".git/COMMIT_EDITMSG"
        echo "✓ Current commit message cleaned"
    fi

    echo "Formatting complete"
}

format_code_and_docs

Troubleshooting Common Issues:

Unexpected Output:

# Debug stripspace behavior
echo "Input text" | tee /tmp/input.txt | git stripspace | tee /tmp/output.txt

# Compare input and output
diff /tmp/input.txt /tmp/output.txt

# Check for special characters
echo "Input text" | od -c  # Show all characters
echo "Input text" | git stripspace | od -c

Comment Processing Issues:

# Debug comment stripping
echo -e "Content\n# Comment\nMore content" | git stripspace --strip-comments

# Check comment character
git config core.commentChar  # Should be '#'

# Handle different comment styles
echo -e "Content\n// Comment\nMore content" | sed 's|//|#|g' | git stripspace --strip-comments

Encoding Issues:

# Handle encoding problems
export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8

# Process with specific encoding
echo "Text with special chars: äöü" | git stripspace

# Check for BOM or other issues
file input.txt
hexdump -C input.txt | head -5

Performance Issues:

# Process large files efficiently
time git stripspace < large-file.txt > /dev/null

# Use streaming for big files
cat large-file.txt | git stripspace | gzip > output.txt.gz

# Monitor memory usage
/usr/bin/time -v git stripspace < large-file.txt > /dev/null

Integration Issues:

# Test with other tools
echo "Test input" | git stripspace | wc -l

# Chain with other commands
echo "Input" | git stripspace | sed 's/pattern/replacement/' | sort

# Use in scripts safely
if command -v git >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    cleaned=$(echo "$input" | git stripspace 2>/dev/null || echo "$input")
else
    cleaned="$input"
fi

Caution

git stripspace modifies text content. Always backup important files before processing. Test with sample data first.

Real-World Usage Examples:

Commit Message Cleanup:

#!/bin/bash
# Commit message cleanup utilities

# Clean commit message editor content
clean_commit_editor() {
    echo "=== Commit Message Cleanup ==="

    # Read from commit message file
    commit_file="${1:-.git/COMMIT_EDITMSG}"

    if [ ! -f "$commit_file" ]; then
        echo "Commit file not found: $commit_file"
        return 1
    fi

    # Backup original
    cp "$commit_file" "${commit_file}.original"

    # Clean the message
    {
        # Extract subject (first line)
        subject=$(head -1 "$commit_file" | git stripspace)

        # Process body
        tail -n +2 "$commit_file" | git stripspace --strip-comments | git stripspace

    } > "${commit_file}.clean"

    # Validate result
    if [ -s "${commit_file}.clean" ] && head -1 "${commit_file}.clean" | grep -q '[a-zA-Z0-9]'; then
        mv "${commit_file}.clean" "$commit_file"
        echo "✓ Commit message cleaned"

        # Show result
        echo "Subject: $(head -1 "$commit_file")"
        body_lines=$(tail -n +2 "$commit_file" | wc -l)
        echo "Body lines: $body_lines"
    else
        rm "${commit_file}.clean"
        mv "${commit_file}.original" "$commit_file"
        echo "✗ Cleaning failed, original restored"
        return 1
    fi

    # Cleanup
    rm -f "${commit_file}.original"
}

# Batch clean commit messages (for existing commits - dangerous!)
clean_commit_history() {
    echo "=== WARNING: This will rewrite commit history ==="
    echo "This operation cannot be undone safely"
    echo "Make sure you have backups and understand the consequences"

    read -p "Continue? (yes/no): " confirm
    if [ "$confirm" != "yes" ]; then
        echo "Operation cancelled"
        return 1
    fi

    # Use git filter-branch to clean messages
    git filter-branch --msg-filter '
        git stripspace --strip-comments | git stripspace
    ' -- --all

    echo "Commit history cleaned"
    echo "You may need to force-push: git push --force --all"
}

# Interactive cleanup
interactive_cleanup() {
    echo "Commit Message Cleanup Options:"
    echo "1. Clean current commit message"
    echo "2. Clean commit history (dangerous)"
    echo "3. Show cleanup examples"

    read -p "Select option (1-3): " option

    case "$option" in
        1) clean_commit_editor ;;
        2) clean_commit_history ;;
        3)
            echo "Examples:"
            echo "  echo '  Messy message  ' | git stripspace"
            echo "  git stripspace --strip-comments < file.txt"
            echo "  git stripspace --comment-lines < file.txt"
            ;;
        *) echo "Invalid option" ;;
    esac
}

interactive_cleanup

Patch and Diff Processing:

# Process patches and diffs
patch_processing() {
    echo "=== Patch and Diff Processing ==="

    # Clean patch file
    clean_patch_file() {
        local patch_file="$1"

        if [ ! -f "$patch_file" ]; then
            echo "Patch file not found: $patch_file"
            return 1
        fi

        echo "Cleaning patch: $patch_file"

        # Backup
        cp "$patch_file" "${patch_file}.backup"

        # Clean whitespace while preserving diff structure
        git stripspace < "$patch_file" > "${patch_file}.clean"

        # Validate the cleaned patch
        if git apply --check "${patch_file}.clean" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
            mv "${patch_file}.clean" "$patch_file"
            echo "✓ Patch cleaned successfully"
        else
            rm "${patch_file}.clean"
            echo "✗ Cleaning would break patch, original preserved"
            return 1
        fi

        # Cleanup
        rm -f "${patch_file}.backup"
    }

    # Process diff output
    clean_diff_output() {
        echo "Cleaning diff output..."

        # Generate and clean diff
        git diff | git stripspace > cleaned-diff.patch

        echo "Cleaned diff saved to: cleaned-diff.patch"

        # Show statistics
        echo "Diff statistics:"
        wc -l cleaned-diff.patch
    }

    # Batch process patches
    batch_clean_patches() {
        local patch_dir="${1:-.}"

        echo "Batch cleaning patches in: $patch_dir"

        find "$patch_dir" -name "*.patch" -o -name "*.diff" | while read -r patch_file; do
            echo "Processing: $patch_file"
            clean_patch_file "$patch_file"
        done

        echo "Batch processing complete"
    }

    # Interactive patch processing
    echo "Patch Processing Options:"
    echo "1. Clean single patch file"
    echo "2. Generate cleaned diff"
    echo "3. Batch clean patches"

    read -p "Select option (1-3): " option

    case "$option" in
        1)
            read -p "Patch file: " patch_file
            clean_patch_file "$patch_file"
            ;;
        2) clean_diff_output ;;
        3)
            read -p "Directory (default: .): " patch_dir
            batch_clean_patches "${patch_dir:-.}"
            ;;
        *) echo "Invalid option" ;;
    esac
}

patch_processing

Documentation Cleanup:

# Clean documentation files
documentation_cleanup() {
    echo "=== Documentation Cleanup ==="

    # Clean markdown files
    clean_markdown() {
        local file="$1"

        echo "Cleaning markdown: $file"

        # Backup
        cp "$file" "${file}.backup"

        # Clean whitespace while preserving markdown structure
        git stripspace < "$file" > "${file}.clean"

        # Basic markdown validation
        if head -1 "${file}.clean" | grep -q '^#'; then
            mv "${file}.clean" "$file"
            echo "✓ Markdown cleaned"
        else
            rm "${file}.clean"
            echo "⚠ Cleaning may have broken markdown structure"
            return 1
        fi

        # Cleanup
        rm -f "${file}.backup"
    }

    # Clean text documentation
    clean_text_docs() {
        local file="$1"

        echo "Cleaning text documentation: $file"

        # Clean whitespace and normalize
        git stripspace < "$file" > "${file}.clean"
        mv "${file}.clean" "$file"

        echo "✓ Text documentation cleaned"
    }

    # Process all documentation
    process_documentation() {
        local doc_dir="${1:-docs}"

        echo "Processing documentation in: $doc_dir"

        # Find and process files
        find "$doc_dir" -type f \( -name "*.md" -o -name "*.txt" -o -name "*.rst" \) | while read -r doc_file; do
            case "$doc_file" in
                *.md) clean_markdown "$doc_file" ;;
                *.txt|*.rst) clean_text_docs "$doc_file" ;;
            esac
        done

        echo "Documentation processing complete"
    }

    # Check for common issues
    check_doc_issues() {
        local doc_dir="${1:-docs}"

        echo "Checking documentation for issues..."

        # Check for trailing whitespace
        find "$doc_dir" -type f -name "*.md" -exec grep -l '  $' {} \; | while read -r file; do
            echo "⚠ Trailing whitespace in: $file"
        done

        # Check for very long lines
        find "$doc_dir" -type f -name "*.md" -exec awk 'length > 120 {print FILENAME ":" NR ": line too long"; exit}' {} \; 2>/dev/null | head -5

        # Check for empty files
        find "$doc_dir" -type f -empty | while read -r file; do
            echo "⚠ Empty file: $file"
        done
    }

    # Interactive documentation cleanup
    echo "Documentation Cleanup Options:"
    echo "1. Process all documentation"
    echo "2. Clean single file"
    echo "3. Check for issues"

    read -p "Select option (1-3): " option

    case "$option" in
        1)
            read -p "Documentation directory (default: docs): " doc_dir
            process_documentation "${doc_dir:-docs}"
            ;;
        2)
            read -p "File to clean: " doc_file
            if [[ "$doc_file" == *.md ]]; then
                clean_markdown "$doc_file"
            else
                clean_text_docs "$doc_file"
            fi
            ;;
        3)
            read -p "Directory to check (default: docs): " check_dir
            check_doc_issues "${check_dir:-docs}"
            ;;
        *) echo "Invalid option" ;;
    esac
}

documentation_cleanup

Code Comment Processing:

# Process code comments and documentation
code_comment_processing() {
    echo "=== Code Comment Processing ==="

    # Extract and clean comments from code
    extract_comments() {
        local source_file="$1"
        local comment_prefix="${2:-#}"

        echo "Extracting comments from: $source_file"

        # Extract comments (basic implementation)
        grep "^[[:space:]]*$comment_prefix" "$source_file" | \
            sed "s/^[[:space:]]*$comment_prefix[[:space:]]*//" | \
            git stripspace > "${source_file}.comments.txt"

        echo "Comments extracted to: ${source_file}.comments.txt"
    }

    # Clean inline documentation
    clean_inline_docs() {
        local file="$1"

        echo "Cleaning inline documentation in: $file"

        # This is a simplified example - real implementation would need
        # language-specific parsing
        cp "$file" "${file}.backup"

        # Basic cleaning (would need more sophisticated parsing for real use)
        # For demonstration only
        echo "Note: Real inline documentation cleaning requires language-specific tools"
        echo "This is a placeholder for more complex processing"
    }

    # Process README and documentation files
    process_readme_files() {
        echo "Processing README and documentation files..."

        for readme in README* *.md; do
            if [ -f "$readme" ]; then
                echo "Processing: $readme"
                git stripspace < "$readme" > "${readme}.clean"

                # Basic validation
                if grep -q '[a-zA-Z]' "${readme}.clean"; then
                    mv "${readme}.clean" "$readme"
                    echo "✓ $readme cleaned"
                else
                    rm "${readme}.clean"
                    echo "⚠ $readme became empty, skipped"
                fi
            fi
        done
    }

    # Interactive code comment processing
    echo "Code Comment Processing Options:"
    echo "1. Extract comments from source file"
    echo "2. Process README files"
    echo "3. Show comment processing examples"

    read -p "Select option (1-3): " option

    case "$option" in
        1)
            read -p "Source file: " source_file
            read -p "Comment prefix (default: #): " prefix
            extract_comments "$source_file" "${prefix:-#}"
            ;;
        2) process_readme_files ;;
        3)
            echo "Examples:"
            echo "  # Extract Python comments"
            echo "  extract_comments script.py '#'"
            echo "  "
            echo "  # Extract C++ comments"
            echo "  extract_comments code.cpp '//'"
            echo "  "
            echo "  # Clean markdown"
            echo "  git stripspace < README.md > README.clean.md"
            ;;
        *) echo "Invalid option" ;;
    esac
}

code_comment_processing

Automated Text Processing Pipeline:

# Automated text processing pipeline
text_processing_pipeline() {
    echo "=== Automated Text Processing Pipeline ==="

    # Define processing stages
    define_pipeline() {
        cat << 'EOF'
Text Processing Pipeline Stages:
1. Input validation
2. Encoding normalization
3. Whitespace cleaning
4. Comment processing
5. Content validation
6. Output formatting
7. Quality checks
EOF
    }

    # Run full processing pipeline
    run_pipeline() {
        local input_file="$1"
        local output_file="$2"

        echo "Running processing pipeline on: $input_file"

        # Stage 1: Input validation
        if [ ! -f "$input_file" ]; then
            echo "✗ Input file not found"
            return 1
        fi

        if [ ! -s "$input_file" ]; then
            echo "✗ Input file is empty"
            return 1
        fi

        echo "✓ Stage 1: Input validation passed"

        # Stage 2: Encoding check (simplified)
        if file "$input_file" | grep -q "UTF-8\|ASCII"; then
            echo "✓ Stage 2: Encoding appears valid"
        else
            echo "⚠ Stage 2: Encoding may need attention"
        fi

        # Stage 3: Whitespace cleaning
        git stripspace < "$input_file" > "${output_file}.stage3"
        echo "✓ Stage 3: Whitespace cleaned"

        # Stage 4: Comment processing
        git stripspace --strip-comments < "${output_file}.stage3" | git stripspace > "${output_file}.stage4"
        echo "✓ Stage 4: Comments processed"

        # Stage 5: Content validation
        if [ -s "${output_file}.stage4" ]; then
            echo "✓ Stage 5: Content validation passed"
        else
            echo "✗ Stage 5: Content became empty"
            rm -f "${output_file}.stage"*
            return 1
        fi

        # Stage 6: Output formatting
        mv "${output_file}.stage4" "$output_file"
        echo "✓ Stage 6: Output formatted"

        # Stage 7: Quality checks
        lines=$(wc -l < "$output_file")
        words=$(wc -w < "$output_file")
        chars=$(wc -c < "$output_file")

        echo "✓ Stage 7: Quality metrics - $lines lines, $words words, $chars characters"

        # Cleanup
        rm -f "${output_file}.stage"*

        echo "Pipeline completed successfully"
    }

    # Batch processing
    batch_process() {
        local input_dir="$1"
        local output_dir="$2"

        echo "Batch processing files from $input_dir to $output_dir"

        mkdir -p "$output_dir"

        find "$input_dir" -type f \( -name "*.txt" -o -name "*.md" \) | while read -r input_file; do
            relative_path="${input_file#$input_dir/}"
            output_file="$output_dir/$relative_path"

            mkdir -p "$(dirname "$output_file")"

            if run_pipeline "$input_file" "$output_file"; then
                echo "Processed: $relative_path"
            else
                echo "Failed: $relative_path"
            fi
        done

        echo "Batch processing complete"
    }

    # Interactive pipeline
    echo "Text Processing Pipeline Options:"
    echo "1. Show pipeline definition"
    echo "2. Run pipeline on single file"
    echo "3. Batch process directory"

    read -p "Select option (1-3): " option

    case "$option" in
        1) define_pipeline ;;
        2)
            read -p "Input file: " input_file
            read -p "Output file: " output_file
            run_pipeline "$input_file" "$output_file"
            ;;
        3)
            read -p "Input directory: " input_dir
            read -p "Output directory: " output_dir
            batch_process "$input_dir" "$output_dir"
            ;;
        *) echo "Invalid option" ;;
    esac
}

text_processing_pipeline

Tip

Use git stripspace for cleaning commit messages and patches. Combine —strip-comments with —comment-lines for flexible comment handling. Always test processing on sample data first.

What’s the difference between git stripspace and standard text processing tools?

git stripspace is specifically designed for Git text processing with knowledge of Git’s comment conventions and whitespace rules, while standard tools like sed or awk are more general-purpose.

How do I remove only trailing whitespace from lines?

git stripspace removes both leading and trailing whitespace from each line. For trailing only, use sed ‘s/[[:space:]]*$//’.

Can git stripspace handle different comment characters?

git stripspace —strip-comments removes lines starting with # by default. Use sed to change comment characters before processing.

How do I preserve empty lines between paragraphs?

git stripspace collapses multiple consecutive empty lines to one, which is usually desirable for commit messages and documentation.

Can git stripspace process binary files?

No, stripspace is designed for text processing. It may corrupt binary files or produce unexpected results.

How do I use stripspace in a Git commit-msg hook?

Add git stripspace —strip-comments < “$1” | git stripspace > “$1.tmp” && mv “$1.tmp” “$1” to clean commit messages automatically.

What’s the difference between —strip-comments and —comment-lines?

—strip-comments removes lines starting with #, —comment-lines adds # prefix to all lines (useful for creating commented text).

Can git stripspace handle very large files?

Yes, it processes files line by line, so memory usage is minimal. However, very large files may take time to process.

How do I preserve indentation in code while cleaning?

git stripspace removes all leading/trailing whitespace. For code formatting, use language-specific formatters instead.

Can stripspace work with different encodings?

It works with UTF-8 by default. Set LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 or use iconv for other encodings.

How do I test stripspace behavior?

Pipe sample text through git stripspace and observe the output: echo “test text” | git stripspace

Can stripspace be used in CI/CD pipelines?

Yes, it’s useful for normalizing text files, cleaning commit messages, and validating documentation format.

How do I undo stripspace changes?

Keep backups before processing. If needed, restore from version control or backups.

Does stripspace modify files in place?

No, it reads from stdin and writes to stdout. Redirect output to modify files: git stripspace < input.txt > output.txt

Can stripspace handle Git-specific formatting?

Yes, it understands Git comment conventions and is used internally by Git for commit message processing.

Applications of the git stripspace command

1. Commit Message Cleaning: Remove unwanted whitespace and comments from commit messages
2. Patch Processing: Clean whitespace in patch files for consistent formatting
3. Documentation Cleanup: Normalize text files and documentation
4. Hook Integration: Automate text cleaning in Git hooks
5. CI/CD Processing: Normalize text in automated pipelines
6. Code Comment Extraction: Process and clean code comments
7. Text Normalization: Standardize text formatting across projects
8. Quality Assurance: Validate and clean text-based project assets