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 the compression level for objects that
208 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
209 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
214 changes the format of loose objects so that they are more
215 efficient to pack and to send out of the repository over git
216 native protocol, since v1.4.2. However, loose objects
217 written in the new format cannot be read by git older than
218 that version; people fetching from your repository using
219 older versions of git over dumb transports (e.g. http)
220 will also be affected.
222 To let git use the new loose object format, you have to
223 set core.legacyheaders to false.
225 core.packedGitWindowSize::
226 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
227 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow
228 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
229 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
230 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
231 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
232 a large number of large pack files.
234 Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
235 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should
236 be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do
237 not need to adjust this value.
239 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
241 core.packedGitLimit::
242 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
243 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many
244 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
245 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
247 Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
248 This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
249 the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value.
251 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
253 core.deltaBaseCacheLimit::
254 Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects
255 that multiple deltafied objects reference. By storing the
256 entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able
257 to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base
258 objects multiple times.
260 Default is 16 MiB on all platforms. This should be reasonable
261 for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects.
262 You probably do not need to adjust this value.
264 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
267 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
268 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
269 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
270 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
271 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
272 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
273 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
275 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
276 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining
277 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
278 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
279 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
282 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
283 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
285 branch.<name>.remote::
286 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
287 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
289 branch.<name>.merge::
290 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
291 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
292 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
293 given by "branch.<name>.remote".
294 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
295 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
296 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
297 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
298 If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from
299 another branch in the local repository, you can point
300 branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting
301 `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.
304 A boolean to make git-clean do nothing unless given -f or -n. Defaults
308 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
309 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
310 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
311 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
313 color.branch.<slot>::
314 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
315 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
316 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
319 The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
320 two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors
321 accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
322 `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
323 `blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the
324 second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any,
328 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
329 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use
330 colors only when the output is to the terminal.
333 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies
334 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
335 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
336 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
337 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
338 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as
339 in color.branch.<slot>.
342 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
343 use (default is true).
346 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
347 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
348 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
349 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
351 color.status.<slot>::
352 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
353 one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
354 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
355 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
356 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
357 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
360 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
361 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
364 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it
365 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or
366 "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
369 If the number of objects fetched over the git native
370 transfer is below this
371 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
372 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
373 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
374 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
375 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
376 especially on slow filesystems.
379 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
380 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
383 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
384 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
385 include the dot if you want it).
388 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
389 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
390 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git
391 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells
392 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
393 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
394 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true`
395 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
396 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
399 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
400 this time; defaults to 90 days.
402 gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
403 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
404 this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
408 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
409 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
410 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
412 gc.rerereunresolved::
413 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
414 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
415 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
418 Whether the cvs server interface is enabled for this repository.
419 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
422 Path to a log file where the cvs server interface well... logs
423 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
426 If true, all files are sent to the client in mode '-kb'. This
427 causes the client to treat all files as binary files which suppresses
428 any newline munging it otherwise might do. A work-around for the
429 fact that there is no way yet to set single files to mode '-kb'.
432 Database used by git-cvsserver to cache revision information
433 derived from the git repository. The exact meaning depends on the
434 used database driver, for SQLite (which is the default driver) this
435 is a filename. Supports variable substitution (see
436 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details). May not contain semicolons (`;`).
437 Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
440 Used Perl DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
441 for this here, but it might not work. git-cvsserver is tested
442 with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with 'DBD::Pg', and
443 reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'. Experimental feature.
444 May not contain double colons (`:`). Default: 'SQLite'.
445 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
447 gitcvs.dbuser, gitcvs.dbpass::
448 Database user and password. Only useful if setting 'gitcvs.dbdriver',
449 since SQLite has no concept of database users and/or passwords.
450 'gitcvs.dbuser' supports variable substitution (see
451 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details).
453 All gitcvs variables except for 'gitcvs.allbinary' can also specifed
454 as 'gitcvs.<access_method>.<varname>' (where 'access_method' is one
455 of "ext" and "pserver") to make them apply only for the given access
459 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
460 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
464 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
465 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
469 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
470 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
474 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
475 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
476 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
479 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
480 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
481 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
484 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
485 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
487 http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
488 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
489 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
490 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
491 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
494 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
495 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which don't
496 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
497 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
499 i18n.commitEncoding::
500 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
501 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
502 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
503 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
504 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
506 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
507 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
508 running `git-log` and friends.
511 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
512 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
513 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
514 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
517 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
518 merge commit messages. False by default.
521 Controls which merge resolution program is used by
522 gitlink:git-mergetool[l]. Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff",
523 "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff", and "opendiff"
526 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
527 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
528 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
529 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and
530 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2.
532 merge.<driver>.name::
533 Defines a human readable name for a custom low-level
534 merge driver. See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
536 merge.<driver>.driver::
537 Defines the command that implements a custom low-level
538 merge driver. See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
540 merge.<driver>.recursive::
541 Names a low-level merge driver to be used when
542 performing an internal merge between common ancestors.
543 See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
546 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
547 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
550 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
554 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
557 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
560 remote.<name>.fetch::
561 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
562 gitlink:git-fetch[1].
565 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
568 remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
569 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
570 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].
572 remote.<name>.receivepack::
573 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See
574 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
576 remote.<name>.uploadpack::
577 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See
578 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
580 remote.<name>.tagopt::
581 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching
585 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
586 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1].
588 repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
589 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
590 delta-base offset. Defaults to false.
593 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
594 for gitlink:git-show[1].
597 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
598 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
601 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
602 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
603 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
604 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
605 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
606 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
607 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
608 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
609 value remains 0, which means world read-write.
612 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
613 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL', 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL', and
614 'EMAIL' environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
617 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
618 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
619 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
622 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
623 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
624 default selection with this variable. This option is passed
625 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
626 using any method that gpg supports.
628 whatchanged.difftree::
629 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
630 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
633 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
634 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
636 receive.unpackLimit::
637 If the number of objects received in a push is below this
638 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
639 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
640 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
641 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
642 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
643 especially on slow filesystems.
645 receive.denyNonFastForwards::
646 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
647 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
648 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
649 set when initializing a shared repository.
651 transfer.unpackLimit::
652 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
653 not set, the value of this variable is used instead.