Create a new manpage for the gitignore format, and reference it elsewhere

[git/mingw.git] / Documentation / config.txt

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. The file `/etc/gitconfig`
can be used to store system-wide defaults.

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 '`\\`',
respectively) 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.autocrlf::
        If true, makes git convert `CRLF` at the end of lines in text files to
        `LF` when reading from the filesystem, and convert in reverse when
        writing to the filesystem.  The variable can be set to
        'input', in which case the conversion happens only while
        reading from the filesystem but files are written out with
        `LF` at the end of lines.  Currently, which paths to consider
        "text" (i.e. be subjected to the autocrlf mechanism) is
        decided purely based on the contents.

core.symlinks::
        If false, symbolic links are checked out as small plain files that
        contain the link text. gitlink:git-update-index[1] and
        gitlink:git-add[1] will not change the recorded type to regular
        file. Useful on filesystems like FAT that do not support
        symbolic links. 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.bare::
        If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no
        working directory associated with it.  If this is the case a
        number of commands that require a working directory will be
        disabled, such as gitlink:git-add[1] or gitlink:git-merge[1].
+
This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or
gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created.  By default a
repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare =
false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare
= true).

core.logAllRefUpdates::
        Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
        "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
        SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
        only when the file exists.  If this configuration
        variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
        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
        changes the format of loose objects so that they are more
        efficient to pack and to send out of the repository over git
        native protocol, since v1.4.2.  However, loose objects
        written in the new format cannot be read by git older than
        that version; people fetching from your repository using
        older versions of git over dumb transports (e.g. http)
        will also be affected.
+
To let git use the new loose object format, you have to
set core.legacyheaders to false.

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.

core.deltaBaseCacheLimit::
        Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects
        that multiple deltafied objects reference.  By storing the
        entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able
        to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base
        objects multiple times.
+
Default is 16 MiB on all 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.

core.excludeFile::
        In addition to '.gitignore' (per-directory) and
        '.git/info/exclude', git looks into this file for patterns
        of files which are not meant to be tracked.  See
        gitlink:gitignore[5].

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.

        If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
        it will be treated as a shell command.  For example, defining
        "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
        "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
        "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".

apply.whitespace::
        Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
        as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].

branch.autosetupmerge::
        Tells `git-branch` and `git-checkout` to setup new branches
        so that gitlink:git-pull[1] will appropriately merge from that
        remote branch.  Note that even if this option is not set,
        this behavior can be chosen per-branch using the `--track`
        and `--no-track` options.  This option defaults to false.

branch.<name>.remote::
        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
        If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".

branch.<name>.merge::
        When in branch <name>, 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.<name>.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.
        If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from
        another branch in the local repository, you can point
        branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting
        `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.

clean.requireForce::
        A boolean to make git-clean do nothing unless given -f or -n.  Defaults
        to false.

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.<slot>::
        Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` 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.<slot>::
        Use customized color for diff colorization.  `<slot>` 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.<slot>.

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.<slot>::
        Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` 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.<slot>.

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].

format.suffix::
        The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
        `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
        include the dot if you want it).

gc.packrefs::
        `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
        default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
        from the repository.  Setting this to `true` lets `git
        gc` to run `git pack-refs`.  Setting this to `false` tells
        `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
        `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
        support such clients.  The default setting will change to `true`
        at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
        prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.

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 server interface is enabled for this repository.
        See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].

gitcvs.logfile::
        Path to a log file where the cvs server interface well... logs
        various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].

gitcvs.allbinary::
        If true, all files are sent to the client in mode '-kb'. This
        causes the client to treat all files as binary files which suppresses
        any newline munging it otherwise might do. A work-around for the
        fact that there is no way yet to set single files to mode '-kb'.

gitcvs.dbname::
        Database used by git-cvsserver to cache revision information
        derived from the git repository. The exact meaning depends on the
        used database driver, for SQLite (which is the default driver) this
        is a filename. Supports variable substitution (see
        gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details). May not contain semicolons (`;`).
        Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'

gitcvs.dbdriver::
        Used Perl DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
        for this here, but it might not work. git-cvsserver is tested
        with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with 'DBD::Pg', and
        reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'. Experimental feature.
        May not contain double colons (`:`). Default: 'SQLite'.
        See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].

gitcvs.dbuser, gitcvs.dbpass::
        Database user and password. Only useful if setting 'gitcvs.dbdriver',
        since SQLite has no concept of database users and/or passwords.
        'gitcvs.dbuser' supports variable substitution (see
        gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details).

All gitcvs variables except for 'gitcvs.allbinary' can also specifed
as 'gitcvs.<access_method>.<varname>' (where 'access_method' is one
of "ext" and "pserver") to make them apply only for the given access
method.

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 don'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.tool::
        Controls which merge resolution program is used by
        gitlink:git-mergetool[l].  Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff",
        "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff", and "opendiff"

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.

merge.<driver>.name::
        Defines a human readable name for a custom low-level
        merge driver.  See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.

merge.<driver>.driver::
        Defines the command that implements a custom low-level
        merge driver.  See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.

merge.<driver>.recursive::
        Names a low-level merge driver to be used when
        performing an internal merge between common ancestors.
        See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.

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.

pack.depth::
        The maximum delta depth used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
        maximum depth is given on the command line. Defaults to 50.

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.<name>.url::
        The URL of a remote repository.  See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
        gitlink:git-push[1].

remote.<name>.fetch::
        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
        gitlink:git-fetch[1].

remote.<name>.push::
        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
        gitlink:git-push[1].

remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
        If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
        using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].

remote.<name>.receivepack::
        The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing.  See
        option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].

remote.<name>.uploadpack::
        The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching.  See
        option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].

remote.<name>.tagopt::
        Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching
        from remote <name>

remotes.<group>::
        The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
        <group>".  See gitlink:git-remote[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', 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL', and
        '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.