1 CONFIGURATION FILE
2 ------------------
4 The git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect
5 the git command's behavior. `.git/config` file for each repository
6 is used to store the information for that repository, and
7 `$HOME/.gitconfig` is used to store per user information to give
8 fallback values for `.git/config` file.
10 They can be used by both the git plumbing
11 and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where
12 in the fully qualified variable name the variable itself is the last
13 dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
14 dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
15 characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times.
17 Syntax
18 ~~~~~~
20 The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
21 ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
22 blank lines are ignored.
24 The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with
25 the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
26 section begins. Section names are not case sensitive. Only alphanumeric
27 characters, '`-`' and '`.`' are allowed in section names. Each variable
28 must belong to some section, which means that there must be section
29 header before first setting of a variable.
31 Sections can be further divided into subsections. To begin a subsection
32 put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name,
33 in the section header, like in example below:
35 --------
36 [section "subsection"]
38 --------
40 Subsection names can contain any characters except newline (doublequote
41 '`"`' and backslash have to be escaped as '`\"`' and '`\\`',
42 respectively) and are case sensitive. Section header cannot span multiple
43 lines. Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection.
44 You can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you
45 don't need to.
47 There is also (case insensitive) alternative `[section.subsection]` syntax.
48 In this syntax subsection names follow the same restrictions as for section
49 name.
51 All the other lines are recognized as setting variables, in the form
52 'name = value'. If there is no equal sign on the line, the entire line
53 is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true".
54 The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
55 characters and '`-`' are allowed. There can be more than one value
56 for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued.
58 Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded.
59 Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim.
61 The values following the equals sign in variable assign are all either
62 a string, an integer, or a boolean. Boolean values may be given as yes/no,
63 0/1 or true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, when
64 converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type specifier;
65 `git-config` will ensure that the output is "true" or "false".
67 String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes.
68 You need to enclose variable value in double quotes if you want to
69 preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if variable value contains
70 beginning of comment characters (if it contains '#' or ';').
71 Double quote '`"`' and backslash '`\`' characters in variable value must
72 be escaped: use '`\"`' for '`"`' and '`\\`' for '`\`'.
74 The following escape sequences (beside '`\"`' and '`\\`') are recognized:
75 '`\n`' for newline character (NL), '`\t`' for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB)
76 and '`\b`' for backspace (BS). No other char escape sequence, nor octal
77 char sequences are valid.
79 Variable value ending in a '`\`' is continued on the next line in the
80 customary UNIX fashion.
82 Some variables may require special value format.
84 Example
85 ~~~~~~~
87 # Core variables
88 [core]
89 ; Don't trust file modes
90 filemode = false
92 # Our diff algorithm
93 [diff]
94 external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u"
95 renames = true
97 [branch "devel"]
98 remote = origin
99 merge = refs/heads/devel
101 # Proxy settings
102 [core]
103 gitProxy="ssh" for "ssh://kernel.org/"
104 gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest
106 Variables
107 ~~~~~~~~~
109 Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete.
110 For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description
111 in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core
112 porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation.
114 core.fileMode::
115 If false, the executable bit differences between the index and
116 the working copy are ignored; useful on broken filesystems like FAT.
117 See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. True by default.
119 core.gitProxy::
120 A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead
121 of establishing direct connection to the remote server when
122 using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is
123 in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only
124 on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable
125 may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order;
126 the first match wins.
127 +
128 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable
129 (which always applies universally, without the special "for"
130 handling).
132 core.ignoreStat::
133 The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you
134 mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes
135 by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very
136 slow, such as Microsoft Windows. See gitlink:git-update-index[1].
137 False by default.
139 core.preferSymlinkRefs::
140 Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD
141 and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
142 This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
143 expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
145 core.bare::
146 If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no
147 working directory associated with it. If this is the case a
148 number of commands that require a working directory will be
149 disabled, such as gitlink:git-add[1] or gitlink:git-merge[1].
150 +
151 This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or
152 gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created. By default a
153 repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare =
154 false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare
155 = true).
157 core.logAllRefUpdates::
158 Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
159 "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
160 SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
161 only when the file exists. If this configuration
162 variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
163 file is automatically created for branch heads.
164 +
165 This information can be used to determine what commit
166 was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
167 +
168 This value is true by default in a repository that has
169 a working directory associated with it, and false by
170 default in a bare repository.
172 core.repositoryFormatVersion::
173 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
174 version.
176 core.sharedRepository::
177 When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
178 several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
179 group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
180 repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
181 group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
182 reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default.
184 core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
185 If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
186 and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
188 core.compression::
189 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
190 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
191 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
192 slowest.
194 core.legacyheaders::
195 A boolean which
196 changes the format of loose objects so that they are more
197 efficient to pack and to send out of the repository over git
198 native protocol, since v1.4.2. However, loose objects
199 written in the new format cannot be read by git older than
200 that version; people fetching from your repository using
201 older versions of git over dumb transports (e.g. http)
202 will also be affected.
203 +
204 To let git use the new loose object format, you have to
205 set core.legacyheaders to false.
207 core.packedGitWindowSize::
208 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
209 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow
210 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
211 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
212 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
213 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
214 a large number of large pack files.
215 +
216 Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
217 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should
218 be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do
219 not need to adjust this value.
220 +
221 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
223 core.packedGitLimit::
224 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
225 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many
226 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
227 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
228 +
229 Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
230 This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
231 the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value.
232 +
233 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
235 alias.*::
236 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
237 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
238 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
239 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
240 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
241 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
242 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
244 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
245 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining
246 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
247 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
248 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
250 apply.whitespace::
251 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
252 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
254 branch.<name>.remote::
255 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
256 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
258 branch.<name>.merge::
259 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
260 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
261 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
262 given by "branch.<name>.remote".
263 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
264 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
265 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
266 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
268 color.branch::
269 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
270 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
271 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
272 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
274 color.branch.<slot>::
275 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
276 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
277 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
278 refs).
279 +
280 The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
281 two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors
282 accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
283 `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
284 `blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the
285 second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any,
286 doesn't matter.
288 color.diff::
289 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
290 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use
291 colors only when the output is to the terminal.
293 color.diff.<slot>::
294 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies
295 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
296 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
297 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
298 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
299 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as
300 in color.branch.<slot>.
302 color.pager::
303 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
304 use (default is true).
306 color.status::
307 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
308 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
309 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
310 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
312 color.status.<slot>::
313 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
314 one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
315 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
316 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
317 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
318 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
320 diff.renameLimit::
321 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
322 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
324 diff.renames::
325 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it
326 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or
327 "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
329 fetch.unpackLimit::
330 If the number of objects fetched over the git native
331 transfer is below this
332 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
333 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
334 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
335 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
336 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
337 especially on slow filesystems.
339 format.headers::
340 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
341 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
343 format.suffix::
344 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
345 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
346 include the dot if you want it).
348 gc.packrefs::
349 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
350 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
351 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git
352 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells
353 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
354 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
355 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true`
356 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
357 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
359 gc.reflogexpire::
360 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
361 this time; defaults to 90 days.
363 gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
364 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
365 this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
366 defaults to 30 days.
368 gc.rerereresolved::
369 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
370 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
371 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
373 gc.rerereunresolved::
374 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
375 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
376 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
378 gitcvs.enabled::
379 Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository.
380 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
382 gitcvs.logfile::
383 Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs
384 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
386 http.sslVerify::
387 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
388 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
389 variable.
391 http.sslCert::
392 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
393 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
394 variable.
396 http.sslKey::
397 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
398 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
399 variable.
401 http.sslCAInfo::
402 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
403 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
404 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
406 http.sslCAPath::
407 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
408 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
409 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
411 http.maxRequests::
412 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
413 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
415 http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
416 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
417 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
418 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
419 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
421 http.noEPSV::
422 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
423 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't
424 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
425 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
427 i18n.commitEncoding::
428 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
429 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
430 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
431 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
432 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
434 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
435 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
436 running `git-log` and friends.
438 log.showroot::
439 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
440 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
441 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
442 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
444 merge.summary::
445 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
446 merge commit messages. False by default.
448 merge.verbosity::
449 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
450 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
451 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
452 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and
453 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2.
455 pack.window::
456 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
457 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
459 pull.octopus::
460 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
461 at once.
463 pull.twohead::
464 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
466 remote.<name>.url::
467 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
468 gitlink:git-push[1].
470 remote.<name>.fetch::
471 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
472 gitlink:git-fetch[1].
474 remote.<name>.push::
475 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
476 gitlink:git-push[1].
478 remote.<name>.receivepack::
479 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See
480 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
482 remote.<name>.uploadpack::
483 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See
484 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
486 repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
487 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
488 delta-base offset. Defaults to false.
490 show.difftree::
491 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
492 for gitlink:git-show[1].
494 showbranch.default::
495 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
496 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
498 tar.umask::
499 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
500 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
501 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
502 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
503 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
504 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
505 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
506 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
507 value remains 0, which means world read-write.
509 user.email::
510 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
511 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
512 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
514 user.name::
515 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
516 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
517 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
519 user.signingkey::
520 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
521 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
522 default selection with this variable. This option is passed
523 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
524 using any method that gpg supports.
526 whatchanged.difftree::
527 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
528 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
530 imap::
531 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
532 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
534 receive.unpackLimit::
535 If the number of objects received in a push is below this
536 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
537 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
538 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
539 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
540 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
541 especially on slow filesystems.
543 receive.denyNonFastForwards::
544 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
545 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
546 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
547 set when initializing a shared repository.
549 transfer.unpackLimit::
550 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
551 not set, the value of this variable is used instead.