CONFIGURATION FILE ------------------ The git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect the git command's behavior. `.git/config` file for each repository is used to store the information for that repository, and `$HOME/.gitconfig` is used to store per user information to give fallback values for `.git/config` file. They can be used by both the git plumbing and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where in the fully qualified variable name the variable itself is the last dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times. Syntax ~~~~~~ The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line, blank lines are ignored. The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next section begins. Section names are not case sensitive. Only alphanumeric characters, '`-`' and '`.`' are allowed in section names. Each variable must belong to some section, which means that there must be section header before first setting of a variable. Sections can be further divided into subsections. To begin a subsection put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name, in the section header, like in example below: -------- [section "subsection"] -------- Subsection names can contain any characters except newline (doublequote '`"`' and backslash have to be escaped as '`\"`' and '`\\`', respecitvely) and are case sensitive. Section header cannot span multiple lines. Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection. You can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you don't need to. There is also (case insensitive) alternative `[section.subsection]` syntax. In this syntax subsection names follow the same restrictions as for section name. All the other lines are recognized as setting variables, in the form 'name = value'. If there is no equal sign on the line, the entire line is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true". The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric characters and '`-`' are allowed. There can be more than one value for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued. Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded. Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim. The values following the equals sign in variable assign are all either a string, an integer, or a boolean. Boolean values may be given as yes/no, 0/1 or true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, when converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type specifier; `git-config` will ensure that the output is "true" or "false". String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes. You need to enclose variable value in double quotes if you want to preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if variable value contains beginning of comment characters (if it contains '#' or ';'). Double quote '`"`' and backslash '`\`' characters in variable value must be escaped: use '`\"`' for '`"`' and '`\\`' for '`\`'. The following escape sequences (beside '`\"`' and '`\\`') are recognized: '`\n`' for newline character (NL), '`\t`' for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB) and '`\b`' for backspace (BS). No other char escape sequence, nor octal char sequences are valid. Variable value ending in a '`\`' is continued on the next line in the customary UNIX fashion. Some variables may require special value format. Example ~~~~~~~ # Core variables [core] ; Don't trust file modes filemode = false # Our diff algorithm [diff] external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u" renames = true [branch "devel"] remote = origin merge = refs/heads/devel # Proxy settings [core] gitProxy="ssh" for "ssh://kernel.org/" gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest Variables ~~~~~~~~~ Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete. For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation. core.fileMode:: If false, the executable bit differences between the index and the working copy are ignored; useful on broken filesystems like FAT. See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. True by default. core.gitProxy:: A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead of establishing direct connection to the remote server when using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order; the first match wins. + Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable (which always applies universally, without the special "for" handling). core.ignoreStat:: The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very slow, such as Microsoft Windows. See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. False by default. core.preferSymlinkRefs:: Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links. This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that expect HEAD to be a symbolic link. core.logAllRefUpdates:: Updates to a ref is logged to the file "$GIT_DIR/logs/", by appending the new and old SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but only when the file exists. If this configuration variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/" file is automatically created for branch heads. + This information can be used to determine what commit was the tip of a branch "2 days ago". + This value is true by default in a repository that has a working directory associated with it, and false by default in a bare repository. core.repositoryFormatVersion:: Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout version. core.sharedRepository:: When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default. core.warnAmbiguousRefs:: If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default. core.compression:: An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being slowest. core.legacyheaders:: A boolean which enables the legacy object header format in case you want to interoperate with old clients accessing the object database directly (where the "http://" and "rsync://" protocols count as direct access). core.packedGitWindowSize:: Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow your system to process a smaller number of large pack files more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect performance due to increased calls to the operating system's memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing a large number of large pack files. + Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do not need to adjust this value. + Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. core.packedGitLimit:: Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process. + Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value. + Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. alias.*:: Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g. after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported. quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them. apply.whitespace:: Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1]. branch..remote:: When in branch , it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch. If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin". branch..merge:: When in branch , it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote given by "branch..remote". The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched. Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge. color.branch:: A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. color.branch.:: Use customized color for branch coloration. `` is one of `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch), `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other refs). + The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`, `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`, `blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any, doesn't matter. color.diff:: When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch. When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use colors only when the output is to the terminal. color.diff.:: Use customized color for diff colorization. `` specifies which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag` (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines), `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as in color.branch.. color.pager:: A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in use (default is true). color.status:: A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. color.status.:: Use customized color for status colorization. `` is one of `header` (the header text of the status message), `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed), `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index), or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of these variables may be specified as in color.branch.. diff.renameLimit:: The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'. diff.renames:: Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or "copy", it will detect copies, as well. fetch.unpackLimit:: If the number of objects fetched over the git native transfer is below this limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object files. However if the number of received objects equals or exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, especially on slow filesystems. format.headers:: Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1]. gc.reflogexpire:: `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than this time; defaults to 90 days. gc.reflogexpireunreachable:: `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than this time and are not reachable from the current tip; defaults to 30 days. gc.rerereresolved:: Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. gc.rerereunresolved:: Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. gitcvs.enabled:: Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. gitcvs.logfile:: Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. http.sslVerify:: Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment variable. http.sslCert:: File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment variable. http.sslKey:: File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment variable. http.sslCAInfo:: File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable. http.sslCAPath:: Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable. http.maxRequests:: How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5. http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime:: If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit' for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables. http.noEPSV:: A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl. This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV' environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV). i18n.commitEncoding:: Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'. i18n.logOutputEncoding:: Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when running `git-log` and friends. log.showroot:: If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event. This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree. Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default. merge.summary:: Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created merge commit messages. False by default. merge.verbosity:: Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2. pack.window:: The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10. pull.octopus:: The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches at once. pull.twohead:: The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch. remote..url:: The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or gitlink:git-push[1]. remote..fetch:: The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See gitlink:git-fetch[1]. remote..push:: The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See gitlink:git-push[1]. remote..receivepack:: The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1]. remote..uploadpack:: The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]. repack.usedeltabaseoffset:: Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses delta-base offset. Defaults to false. show.difftree:: The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used for gitlink:git-show[1]. showbranch.default:: The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. See gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. tar.umask:: By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects. With this variable, it becomes possible to tell gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above. The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default value remains 0, which means world read-write. user.email:: Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL' environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. user.name:: Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME' environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. user.signingkey:: If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the default selection with this variable. This option is passed unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key using any method that gpg supports. whatchanged.difftree:: The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1]. imap:: The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described in gitlink:git-imap-send[1]. receive.unpackLimit:: If the number of objects received in a push is below this limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object files. However if the number of received objects equals or exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, especially on slow filesystems. receive.denyNonFastForwards:: If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push, even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is set when initializing a shared repository. transfer.unpackLimit:: When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are not set, the value of this variable is used instead.