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 In addition to '.gitignore' (per-directory) and
268 '.git/info/exclude', git looks into this file for patterns
269 of files which are not meant to be tracked.
272 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
273 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
274 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
275 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
276 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
277 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
278 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
280 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
281 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining
282 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
283 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
284 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
287 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
288 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
290 branch.autosetupmerge::
291 Tells `git-branch` and `git-checkout` to setup new branches
292 so that gitlink:git-pull[1] will appropriately merge from that
293 remote branch. Note that even if this option is not set,
294 this behavior can be chosen per-branch using the `--track`
295 and `--no-track` options. This option defaults to false.
297 branch.<name>.remote::
298 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
299 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
301 branch.<name>.merge::
302 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
303 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
304 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
305 given by "branch.<name>.remote".
306 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
307 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
308 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
309 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
310 If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from
311 another branch in the local repository, you can point
312 branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting
313 `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.
316 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
317 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
318 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
319 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
321 color.branch.<slot>::
322 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
323 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
324 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
327 The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
328 two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors
329 accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
330 `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
331 `blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the
332 second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any,
336 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
337 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use
338 colors only when the output is to the terminal.
341 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies
342 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
343 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
344 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
345 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
346 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as
347 in color.branch.<slot>.
350 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
351 use (default is true).
354 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
355 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
356 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
357 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
359 color.status.<slot>::
360 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
361 one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
362 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
363 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
364 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
365 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
368 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
369 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
372 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it
373 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or
374 "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
377 If the number of objects fetched over the git native
378 transfer is below this
379 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
380 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
381 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
382 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
383 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
384 especially on slow filesystems.
387 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
388 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
391 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
392 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
393 include the dot if you want it).
396 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
397 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
398 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git
399 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells
400 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
401 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
402 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true`
403 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
404 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
407 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
408 this time; defaults to 90 days.
410 gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
411 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
412 this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
416 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
417 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
418 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
420 gc.rerereunresolved::
421 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
422 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
423 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
426 Whether the cvs server interface is enabled for this repository.
427 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
430 Path to a log file where the cvs server interface well... logs
431 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
434 If true, all files are sent to the client in mode '-kb'. This
435 causes the client to treat all files as binary files which suppresses
436 any newline munging it otherwise might do. A work-around for the
437 fact that there is no way yet to set single files to mode '-kb'.
438 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
441 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
442 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
446 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
447 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
451 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
452 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
456 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
457 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
458 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
461 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
462 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
463 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
466 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
467 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
469 http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
470 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
471 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
472 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
473 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
476 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
477 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which don't
478 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
479 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
481 i18n.commitEncoding::
482 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
483 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
484 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
485 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
486 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
488 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
489 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
490 running `git-log` and friends.
493 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
494 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
495 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
496 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
499 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
500 merge commit messages. False by default.
503 Controls which merge resolution program is used by
504 gitlink:git-mergetool[l]. Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff",
505 "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff", and "opendiff"
508 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
509 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
510 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
511 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and
512 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2.
515 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
516 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
519 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
523 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
526 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
529 remote.<name>.fetch::
530 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
531 gitlink:git-fetch[1].
534 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
537 remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
538 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
539 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].
541 remote.<name>.receivepack::
542 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See
543 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
545 remote.<name>.uploadpack::
546 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See
547 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
549 remote.<name>.tagopt::
550 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching
554 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
555 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1].
557 repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
558 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
559 delta-base offset. Defaults to false.
562 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
563 for gitlink:git-show[1].
566 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
567 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
570 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
571 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
572 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
573 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
574 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
575 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
576 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
577 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
578 value remains 0, which means world read-write.
581 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
582 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
583 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
586 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
587 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
588 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
591 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
592 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
593 default selection with this variable. This option is passed
594 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
595 using any method that gpg supports.
597 whatchanged.difftree::
598 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
599 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
602 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
603 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
605 receive.unpackLimit::
606 If the number of objects received in a push is below this
607 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
608 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
609 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
610 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
611 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
612 especially on slow filesystems.
614 receive.denyNonFastForwards::
615 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
616 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
617 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
618 set when initializing a shared repository.
620 transfer.unpackLimit::
621 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
622 not set, the value of this variable is used instead.