diff --git a/attr.c b/attr.c
index 8985c5c..d181d98 100644
--- a/attr.c
+++ b/attr.c
@@ -255,9 +255,11 @@
 				      &res->u.pat.patternlen,
 				      &res->u.pat.flags,
 				      &res->u.pat.nowildcardlen);
-		if (res->u.pat.flags & EXC_FLAG_NEGATIVE)
-			die(_("Negative patterns are forbidden in git attributes\n"
-			      "Use '\\!' for literal leading exclamation."));
+		if (res->u.pat.flags & EXC_FLAG_NEGATIVE) {
+			warning(_("Negative patterns are ignored in git attributes\n"
+				  "Use '\\!' for literal leading exclamation."));
+			return NULL;
+		}
 	}
 	res->is_macro = is_macro;
 	res->num_attr = num_attr;
diff --git a/t/t0003-attributes.sh b/t/t0003-attributes.sh
index 807b8b8..1035a14 100755
--- a/t/t0003-attributes.sh
+++ b/t/t0003-attributes.sh
@@ -198,7 +198,8 @@
 
 test_expect_success 'negative patterns' '
 	echo "!f test=bar" >.gitattributes &&
-	test_must_fail git check-attr test -- f
+	git check-attr test -- '"'"'!f'"'"' 2>errors &&
+	test_i18ngrep "Negative patterns are ignored" errors
 '
 
 test_expect_success 'patterns starting with exclamation' '