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. The file `/etc/gitconfig`
9 can be used to store system-wide defaults.
11 They can be used by both the git plumbing
12 and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where
13 in the fully qualified variable name the variable itself is the last
14 dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
15 dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
16 characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times.
21 The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
22 ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
23 blank lines are ignored.
25 The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with
26 the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
27 section begins. Section names are not case sensitive. Only alphanumeric
28 characters, '`-`' and '`.`' are allowed in section names. Each variable
29 must belong to some section, which means that there must be section
30 header before first setting of a variable.
32 Sections can be further divided into subsections. To begin a subsection
33 put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name,
34 in the section header, like in example below:
37 [section "subsection"]
41 Subsection names can contain any characters except newline (doublequote
42 '`"`' and backslash have to be escaped as '`\"`' and '`\\`',
43 respectively) and are case sensitive. Section header cannot span multiple
44 lines. Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection.
45 You can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you
48 There is also (case insensitive) alternative `[section.subsection]` syntax.
49 In this syntax subsection names follow the same restrictions as for section
52 All the other lines are recognized as setting variables, in the form
53 'name = value'. If there is no equal sign on the line, the entire line
54 is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true".
55 The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
56 characters and '`-`' are allowed. There can be more than one value
57 for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued.
59 Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded.
60 Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim.
62 The values following the equals sign in variable assign are all either
63 a string, an integer, or a boolean. Boolean values may be given as yes/no,
64 0/1 or true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, when
65 converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type specifier;
66 `git-config` will ensure that the output is "true" or "false".
68 String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes.
69 You need to enclose variable value in double quotes if you want to
70 preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if variable value contains
71 beginning of comment characters (if it contains '#' or ';').
72 Double quote '`"`' and backslash '`\`' characters in variable value must
73 be escaped: use '`\"`' for '`"`' and '`\\`' for '`\`'.
75 The following escape sequences (beside '`\"`' and '`\\`') are recognized:
76 '`\n`' for newline character (NL), '`\t`' for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB)
77 and '`\b`' for backspace (BS). No other char escape sequence, nor octal
78 char sequences are valid.
80 Variable value ending in a '`\`' is continued on the next line in the
81 customary UNIX fashion.
83 Some variables may require special value format.
90 ; Don't trust file modes
95 external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u"
100 merge = refs/heads/devel
104 gitProxy="ssh" for "ssh://kernel.org/"
105 gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest
110 Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete.
111 For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description
112 in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core
113 porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation.
116 If false, the executable bit differences between the index and
117 the working copy are ignored; useful on broken filesystems like FAT.
118 See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. True by default.
121 If true, makes git convert `CRLF` at the end of lines in text files to
122 `LF` when reading from the filesystem, and convert in reverse when
123 writing to the filesystem. The variable can be set to
124 'input', in which case the conversion happens only while
125 reading from the filesystem but files are written out with
126 `LF` at the end of lines. Currently, which paths to consider
127 "text" (i.e. be subjected to the autocrlf mechanism) is
128 decided purely based on the contents.
131 If false, symbolic links are checked out as small plain files that
132 contain the link text. gitlink:git-update-index[1] and
133 gitlink:git-add[1] will not change the recorded type to regular
134 file. Useful on filesystems like FAT that do not support
135 symbolic links. True by default.
138 A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead
139 of establishing direct connection to the remote server when
140 using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is
141 in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only
142 on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable
143 may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order;
144 the first match wins.
146 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable
147 (which always applies universally, without the special "for"
151 The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you
152 mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes
153 by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very
154 slow, such as Microsoft Windows. See gitlink:git-update-index[1].
157 core.preferSymlinkRefs::
158 Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD
159 and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
160 This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
161 expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
164 If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no
165 working directory associated with it. If this is the case a
166 number of commands that require a working directory will be
167 disabled, such as gitlink:git-add[1] or gitlink:git-merge[1].
169 This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or
170 gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created. By default a
171 repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare =
172 false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare
175 core.logAllRefUpdates::
176 Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
177 "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
178 SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
179 only when the file exists. If this configuration
180 variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
181 file is automatically created for branch heads.
183 This information can be used to determine what commit
184 was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
186 This value is true by default in a repository that has
187 a working directory associated with it, and false by
188 default in a bare repository.
190 core.repositoryFormatVersion::
191 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
194 core.sharedRepository::
195 When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
196 several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
197 group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
198 repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
199 group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
200 reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default.
202 core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
203 If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
204 and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
207 An integer -1..9, indicating a default compression level.
208 -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no compression,
209 and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being slowest.
211 core.loosecompression::
212 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
213 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no
214 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
215 slowest. If not set, defaults to core.compression. If that is
216 not set, defaults to 0 (best speed).
218 core.packedGitWindowSize::
219 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
220 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow
221 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
222 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
223 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
224 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
225 a large number of large pack files.
227 Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
228 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should
229 be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do
230 not need to adjust this value.
232 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
234 core.packedGitLimit::
235 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
236 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many
237 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
238 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
240 Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
241 This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
242 the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value.
244 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
246 core.deltaBaseCacheLimit::
247 Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects
248 that multiple deltafied objects reference. By storing the
249 entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able
250 to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base
251 objects multiple times.
253 Default is 16 MiB on all platforms. This should be reasonable
254 for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects.
255 You probably do not need to adjust this value.
257 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
260 In addition to '.gitignore' (per-directory) and
261 '.git/info/exclude', git looks into this file for patterns
262 of files which are not meant to be tracked. See
263 gitlink:gitignore[5].
266 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
267 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
268 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
269 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
270 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
271 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
272 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
274 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
275 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining
276 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
277 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
278 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
281 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
282 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
284 branch.autosetupmerge::
285 Tells `git-branch` and `git-checkout` to setup new branches
286 so that gitlink:git-pull[1] will appropriately merge from that
287 remote branch. Note that even if this option is not set,
288 this behavior can be chosen per-branch using the `--track`
289 and `--no-track` options. This option defaults to false.
291 branch.<name>.remote::
292 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
293 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
295 branch.<name>.merge::
296 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
297 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
298 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
299 given by "branch.<name>.remote".
300 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
301 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
302 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
303 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
304 If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from
305 another branch in the local repository, you can point
306 branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting
307 `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.
310 A boolean to make git-clean do nothing unless given -f or -n. Defaults
314 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
315 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
316 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
317 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
319 color.branch.<slot>::
320 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
321 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
322 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
325 The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
326 two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors
327 accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
328 `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
329 `blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the
330 second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any,
334 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
335 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use
336 colors only when the output is to the terminal.
339 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies
340 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
341 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
342 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
343 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
344 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as
345 in color.branch.<slot>.
348 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
349 use (default is true).
352 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
353 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
354 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
355 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
357 color.status.<slot>::
358 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
359 one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
360 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
361 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
362 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
363 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
366 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
367 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
370 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it
371 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or
372 "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
375 If the number of objects fetched over the git native
376 transfer is below this
377 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
378 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
379 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
380 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
381 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
382 especially on slow filesystems.
385 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
386 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
389 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
390 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
391 include the dot if you want it).
393 gc.aggressiveWindow::
394 The window size parameter used in the delta compression
395 algorithm used by 'git gc --aggressive'. This defaults
399 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
400 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
401 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git
402 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells
403 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
404 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
405 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true`
406 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
407 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
410 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
411 this time; defaults to 90 days.
413 gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
414 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
415 this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
419 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
420 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
421 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
423 gc.rerereunresolved::
424 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
425 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
426 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
429 Whether the cvs server interface is enabled for this repository.
430 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
433 Path to a log file where the cvs server interface well... logs
434 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
437 If true, all files are sent to the client in mode '-kb'. This
438 causes the client to treat all files as binary files which suppresses
439 any newline munging it otherwise might do. A work-around for the
440 fact that there is no way yet to set single files to mode '-kb'.
443 Database used by git-cvsserver to cache revision information
444 derived from the git repository. The exact meaning depends on the
445 used database driver, for SQLite (which is the default driver) this
446 is a filename. Supports variable substitution (see
447 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details). May not contain semicolons (`;`).
448 Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
451 Used Perl DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
452 for this here, but it might not work. git-cvsserver is tested
453 with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with 'DBD::Pg', and
454 reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'. Experimental feature.
455 May not contain double colons (`:`). Default: 'SQLite'.
456 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
458 gitcvs.dbuser, gitcvs.dbpass::
459 Database user and password. Only useful if setting 'gitcvs.dbdriver',
460 since SQLite has no concept of database users and/or passwords.
461 'gitcvs.dbuser' supports variable substitution (see
462 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details).
464 All gitcvs variables except for 'gitcvs.allbinary' can also specifed
465 as 'gitcvs.<access_method>.<varname>' (where 'access_method' is one
466 of "ext" and "pserver") to make them apply only for the given access
470 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
471 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
475 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
476 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
480 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
481 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
485 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
486 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
487 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
490 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
491 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
492 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
495 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
496 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
498 http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
499 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
500 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
501 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
502 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
505 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
506 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which don't
507 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
508 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
510 i18n.commitEncoding::
511 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
512 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
513 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
514 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
515 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
517 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
518 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
519 running `git-log` and friends.
522 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
523 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
524 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
525 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
528 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
529 merge commit messages. False by default.
532 Controls which merge resolution program is used by
533 gitlink:git-mergetool[l]. Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff",
534 "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff", "gvimdiff", and "opendiff".
537 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
538 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
539 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
540 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and
541 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2.
543 merge.<driver>.name::
544 Defines a human readable name for a custom low-level
545 merge driver. See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
547 merge.<driver>.driver::
548 Defines the command that implements a custom low-level
549 merge driver. See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
551 merge.<driver>.recursive::
552 Names a low-level merge driver to be used when
553 performing an internal merge between common ancestors.
554 See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
557 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
558 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
561 The maximum delta depth used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
562 maximum depth is given on the command line. Defaults to 50.
565 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects
566 in a pack file. -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no
567 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
568 slowest. If not set, defaults to core.compression. If that is
569 not set, defaults to -1.
571 pack.deltaCacheSize::
572 The maxium memory in bytes used for caching deltas in
573 gitlink:git-pack-objects[1].
574 A value of 0 means no limit. Defaults to 0.
576 pack.deltaCacheLimit::
577 The maxium size of a delta, that is cached in
578 gitlink:git-pack-objects[1]. Defaults to 1000.
581 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
585 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
588 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
591 remote.<name>.fetch::
592 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
593 gitlink:git-fetch[1].
596 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
599 remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
600 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
601 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].
603 remote.<name>.receivepack::
604 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See
605 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
607 remote.<name>.uploadpack::
608 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See
609 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
611 remote.<name>.tagopt::
612 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching
616 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
617 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1].
619 repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
620 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
621 delta-base offset. Defaults to false.
624 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
625 for gitlink:git-show[1].
628 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
629 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
632 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
633 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
634 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
635 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
636 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
637 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
638 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
639 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
640 value remains 0, which means world read-write.
643 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
644 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL', 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL', and
645 'EMAIL' environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
648 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
649 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
650 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
653 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
654 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
655 default selection with this variable. This option is passed
656 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
657 using any method that gpg supports.
659 whatchanged.difftree::
660 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
661 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
664 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
665 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
667 receive.unpackLimit::
668 If the number of objects received in a push is below this
669 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
670 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
671 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
672 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
673 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
674 especially on slow filesystems.
676 receive.denyNonFastForwards::
677 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
678 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
679 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
680 set when initializing a shared repository.
682 transfer.unpackLimit::
683 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
684 not set, the value of this variable is used instead.