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 false, symbolic links are checked out as small plain files that
122 contain the link text. gitlink:git-update-index[1] and
123 gitlink:git-add[1] will not change the recorded type to regular
124 file. Useful on filesystems like FAT that do not support
125 symbolic links. True by default.
128 A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead
129 of establishing direct connection to the remote server when
130 using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is
131 in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only
132 on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable
133 may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order;
134 the first match wins.
136 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable
137 (which always applies universally, without the special "for"
141 The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you
142 mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes
143 by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very
144 slow, such as Microsoft Windows. See gitlink:git-update-index[1].
147 core.preferSymlinkRefs::
148 Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD
149 and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
150 This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
151 expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
154 If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no
155 working directory associated with it. If this is the case a
156 number of commands that require a working directory will be
157 disabled, such as gitlink:git-add[1] or gitlink:git-merge[1].
159 This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or
160 gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created. By default a
161 repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare =
162 false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare
165 core.logAllRefUpdates::
166 Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
167 "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
168 SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
169 only when the file exists. If this configuration
170 variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
171 file is automatically created for branch heads.
173 This information can be used to determine what commit
174 was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
176 This value is true by default in a repository that has
177 a working directory associated with it, and false by
178 default in a bare repository.
180 core.repositoryFormatVersion::
181 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
184 core.sharedRepository::
185 When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
186 several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
187 group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
188 repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
189 group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
190 reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default.
192 core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
193 If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
194 and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
197 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
198 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
199 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
204 changes the format of loose objects so that they are more
205 efficient to pack and to send out of the repository over git
206 native protocol, since v1.4.2. However, loose objects
207 written in the new format cannot be read by git older than
208 that version; people fetching from your repository using
209 older versions of git over dumb transports (e.g. http)
210 will also be affected.
212 To let git use the new loose object format, you have to
213 set core.legacyheaders to false.
215 core.packedGitWindowSize::
216 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
217 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow
218 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
219 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
220 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
221 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
222 a large number of large pack files.
224 Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
225 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should
226 be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do
227 not need to adjust this value.
229 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
231 core.packedGitLimit::
232 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
233 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many
234 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
235 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
237 Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
238 This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
239 the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value.
241 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
243 core.deltaBaseCacheLimit::
244 Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects
245 that multiple deltafied objects reference. By storing the
246 entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able
247 to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base
248 objects multiple times.
250 Default is 16 MiB on all platforms. This should be reasonable
251 for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects.
252 You probably do not need to adjust this value.
254 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
257 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
258 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
259 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
260 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
261 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
262 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
263 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
265 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
266 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining
267 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
268 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
269 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
272 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
273 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
275 branch.<name>.remote::
276 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
277 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
279 branch.<name>.merge::
280 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
281 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
282 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
283 given by "branch.<name>.remote".
284 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
285 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
286 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
287 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
288 If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from
289 another branch in the local repository, you can point
290 branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting
291 `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.
294 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
295 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
296 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
297 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
299 color.branch.<slot>::
300 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
301 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
302 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
305 The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
306 two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors
307 accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
308 `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
309 `blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the
310 second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any,
314 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
315 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use
316 colors only when the output is to the terminal.
319 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies
320 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
321 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
322 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
323 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
324 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as
325 in color.branch.<slot>.
328 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
329 use (default is true).
332 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
333 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
334 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
335 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
337 color.status.<slot>::
338 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
339 one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
340 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
341 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
342 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
343 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
346 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
347 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
350 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it
351 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or
352 "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
355 If the number of objects fetched over the git native
356 transfer is below this
357 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
358 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
359 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
360 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
361 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
362 especially on slow filesystems.
365 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
366 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
369 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
370 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
371 include the dot if you want it).
374 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
375 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
376 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git
377 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells
378 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
379 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
380 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true`
381 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
382 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
385 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
386 this time; defaults to 90 days.
388 gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
389 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
390 this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
394 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
395 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
396 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
398 gc.rerereunresolved::
399 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
400 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
401 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
404 Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository.
405 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
408 Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs
409 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
412 Database used by git-cvsserver to cache revision information
413 derived from the git repository. The exact meaning depends on the
414 used database driver, for SQLite (which is the default driver) this
415 is a filename. Supports variable substitution (see
416 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details). May not contain semicolons (`;`).
417 Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
420 Used Perl DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
421 for this here, but it might not work. git-cvsserver is tested
422 with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with 'DBD::Pg', and
423 reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'. Experimental feature.
424 May not contain double colons (`:`). Default: 'SQLite'.
425 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
427 gitcvs.dbuser, gitcvs.dbpass::
428 Database user and password. Only useful if setting 'gitcvs.dbdriver',
429 since SQLite has no concept of database users and/or passwords.
430 'gitcvs.dbuser' supports variable substitution (see
431 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details).
433 All gitcvs variables except for 'gitcvs.allbinary' can also specifed
434 as 'gitcvs.<access_method>.<varname>' (where 'access_method' is one
435 of "ext" and "pserver") to make them apply only for the given access
439 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
440 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
444 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
445 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
449 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
450 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
454 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
455 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
456 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
459 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
460 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
461 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
464 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
465 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
467 http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
468 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
469 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
470 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
471 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
474 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
475 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't
476 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
477 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
479 i18n.commitEncoding::
480 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
481 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
482 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
483 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
484 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
486 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
487 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
488 running `git-log` and friends.
491 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
492 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
493 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
494 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
497 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
498 merge commit messages. False by default.
501 Controls which merge resolution program is used by
502 gitlink:git-mergetool[l]. Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff",
503 "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff"
506 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
507 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
508 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
509 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and
510 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2.
513 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
514 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
517 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
521 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
524 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
527 remote.<name>.fetch::
528 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
529 gitlink:git-fetch[1].
532 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
535 remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
536 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
537 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].
539 remote.<name>.receivepack::
540 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See
541 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
543 remote.<name>.uploadpack::
544 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See
545 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
547 remote.<name>.tagopt::
548 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching
552 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
553 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1].
555 repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
556 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
557 delta-base offset. Defaults to false.
560 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
561 for gitlink:git-show[1].
564 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
565 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
568 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
569 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
570 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
571 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
572 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
573 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
574 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
575 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
576 value remains 0, which means world read-write.
579 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
580 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
581 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
584 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
585 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
586 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
589 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
590 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
591 default selection with this variable. This option is passed
592 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
593 using any method that gpg supports.
595 whatchanged.difftree::
596 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
597 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
600 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
601 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
603 receive.unpackLimit::
604 If the number of objects received in a push is below this
605 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
606 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
607 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
608 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
609 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
610 especially on slow filesystems.
612 receive.denyNonFastForwards::
613 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
614 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
615 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
616 set when initializing a shared repository.
618 transfer.unpackLimit::
619 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
620 not set, the value of this variable is used instead.