1CONFIGURATION FILE 2------------------ 3 4The Git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect 5the Git commands' behavior. The `.git/config` file in each repository 6is used to store the configuration for that repository, and 7`$HOME/.gitconfig` is used to store a per-user configuration as 8fallback values for the `.git/config` file. The file `/etc/gitconfig` 9can be used to store a system-wide default configuration. 10 11The configuration variables are used by both the Git plumbing 12and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, wherein 13the fully qualified variable name of the variable itself is the last 14dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last 15dot. The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric 16characters and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character. Some 17variables may appear multiple times; we say then that the variable is 18multivalued. 19 20Syntax 21~~~~~~ 22 23The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly 24ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line, 25blank lines are ignored. 26 27The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with 28the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next 29section begins. Section names are case-insensitive. Only alphanumeric 30characters, `-` and `.` are allowed in section names. Each variable 31must belong to some section, which means that there must be a section 32header before the first setting of a variable. 33 34Sections can be further divided into subsections. To begin a subsection 35put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name, 36in the section header, like in the example below: 37 38-------- 39 [section "subsection"] 40 41-------- 42 43Subsection names are case sensitive and can contain any characters except 44newline and the null byte. Doublequote `"` and backslash can be included 45by escaping them as `\"` and `\\`, respectively. Backslashes preceding 46other characters are dropped when reading; for example, `\t` is read as 47`t` and `\0` is read as `0` Section headers cannot span multiple lines. 48Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection. You 49can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you don't 50need to. 51 52There is also a deprecated `[section.subsection]` syntax. With this 53syntax, the subsection name is converted to lower-case and is also 54compared case sensitively. These subsection names follow the same 55restrictions as section names. 56 57All the other lines (and the remainder of the line after the section 58header) are recognized as setting variables, in the form 59'name = value' (or just 'name', which is a short-hand to say that 60the variable is the boolean "true"). 61The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric characters 62and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character. 63 64A line that defines a value can be continued to the next line by 65ending it with a `\`; the backquote and the end-of-line are 66stripped. Leading whitespaces after 'name =', the remainder of the 67line after the first comment character '#' or ';', and trailing 68whitespaces of the line are discarded unless they are enclosed in 69double quotes. Internal whitespaces within the value are retained 70verbatim. 71 72Inside double quotes, double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters 73must be escaped: use `\"` for `"` and `\\` for `\`. 74 75The following escape sequences (beside `\"` and `\\`) are recognized: 76`\n` for newline character (NL), `\t` for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB) 77and `\b` for backspace (BS). Other char escape sequences (including octal 78escape sequences) are invalid. 79 80 81Includes 82~~~~~~~~ 83 84The `include` and `includeIf` sections allow you to include config 85directives from another source. These sections behave identically to 86each other with the exception that `includeIf` sections may be ignored 87if their condition does not evaluate to true; see "Conditional includes" 88below. 89 90You can include a config file from another by setting the special 91`include.path` (or `includeIf.*.path`) variable to the name of the file 92to be included. The variable takes a pathname as its value, and is 93subject to tilde expansion. These variables can be given multiple times. 94 95The contents of the included file are inserted immediately, as if they 96had been found at the location of the include directive. If the value of the 97variable is a relative path, the path is considered to 98be relative to the configuration file in which the include directive 99was found. See below for examples. 100 101Conditional includes 102~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 103 104You can include a config file from another conditionally by setting a 105`includeIf.<condition>.path` variable to the name of the file to be 106included. 107 108The condition starts with a keyword followed by a colon and some data 109whose format and meaning depends on the keyword. Supported keywords 110are: 111 112`gitdir`:: 113 114 The data that follows the keyword `gitdir:` is used as a glob 115 pattern. If the location of the .git directory matches the 116 pattern, the include condition is met. 117+ 118The .git location may be auto-discovered, or come from `$GIT_DIR` 119environment variable. If the repository is auto discovered via a .git 120file (e.g. from submodules, or a linked worktree), the .git location 121would be the final location where the .git directory is, not where the 122.git file is. 123+ 124The pattern can contain standard globbing wildcards and two additional 125ones, `**/` and `/**`, that can match multiple path components. Please 126refer to linkgit:gitignore[5] for details. For convenience: 127 128 * If the pattern starts with `~/`, `~` will be substituted with the 129 content of the environment variable `HOME`. 130 131 * If the pattern starts with `./`, it is replaced with the directory 132 containing the current config file. 133 134 * If the pattern does not start with either `~/`, `./` or `/`, `**/` 135 will be automatically prepended. For example, the pattern `foo/bar` 136 becomes `**/foo/bar` and would match `/any/path/to/foo/bar`. 137 138 * If the pattern ends with `/`, `**` will be automatically added. For 139 example, the pattern `foo/` becomes `foo/**`. In other words, it 140 matches "foo" and everything inside, recursively. 141 142`gitdir/i`:: 143 This is the same as `gitdir` except that matching is done 144 case-insensitively (e.g. on case-insensitive file sytems) 145 146A few more notes on matching via `gitdir` and `gitdir/i`: 147 148 * Symlinks in `$GIT_DIR` are not resolved before matching. 149 150 * Both the symlink & realpath versions of paths will be matched 151 outside of `$GIT_DIR`. E.g. if ~/git is a symlink to 152 /mnt/storage/git, both `gitdir:~/git` and `gitdir:/mnt/storage/git` 153 will match. 154+ 155This was not the case in the initial release of this feature in 156v2.13.0, which only matched the realpath version. Configuration that 157wants to be compatible with the initial release of this feature needs 158to either specify only the realpath version, or both versions. 159 160 * Note that "../" is not special and will match literally, which is 161 unlikely what you want. 162 163Example 164~~~~~~~ 165 166 # Core variables 167 [core] 168 ; Don't trust file modes 169 filemode = false 170 171 # Our diff algorithm 172 [diff] 173 external = /usr/local/bin/diff-wrapper 174 renames = true 175 176 [branch "devel"] 177 remote = origin 178 merge = refs/heads/devel 179 180 # Proxy settings 181 [core] 182 gitProxy="ssh" for "kernel.org" 183 gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest 184 185 [include] 186 path = /path/to/foo.inc ; include by absolute path 187 path = foo.inc ; find "foo.inc" relative to the current file 188 path = ~/foo.inc ; find "foo.inc" in your `$HOME` directory 189 190 ; include if $GIT_DIR is /path/to/foo/.git 191 [includeIf "gitdir:/path/to/foo/.git"] 192 path = /path/to/foo.inc 193 194 ; include for all repositories inside /path/to/group 195 [includeIf "gitdir:/path/to/group/"] 196 path = /path/to/foo.inc 197 198 ; include for all repositories inside $HOME/to/group 199 [includeIf "gitdir:~/to/group/"] 200 path = /path/to/foo.inc 201 202 ; relative paths are always relative to the including 203 ; file (if the condition is true); their location is not 204 ; affected by the condition 205 [includeIf "gitdir:/path/to/group/"] 206 path = foo.inc 207 208Values 209~~~~~~ 210 211Values of many variables are treated as a simple string, but there 212are variables that take values of specific types and there are rules 213as to how to spell them. 214 215boolean:: 216 217 When a variable is said to take a boolean value, many 218 synonyms are accepted for 'true' and 'false'; these are all 219 case-insensitive. 220 221 true;; Boolean true literals are `yes`, `on`, `true`, 222 and `1`. Also, a variable defined without `= <value>` 223 is taken as true. 224 225 false;; Boolean false literals are `no`, `off`, `false`, 226 `0` and the empty string. 227+ 228When converting a value to its canonical form using the `--type=bool` type 229specifier, 'git config' will ensure that the output is "true" or 230"false" (spelled in lowercase). 231 232integer:: 233 The value for many variables that specify various sizes can 234 be suffixed with `k`, `M`,... to mean "scale the number by 235 1024", "by 1024x1024", etc. 236 237color:: 238 The value for a variable that takes a color is a list of 239 colors (at most two, one for foreground and one for background) 240 and attributes (as many as you want), separated by spaces. 241+ 242The basic colors accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, 243`blue`, `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`. The first color given is the 244foreground; the second is the background. 245+ 246Colors may also be given as numbers between 0 and 255; these use ANSI 247256-color mode (but note that not all terminals may support this). If 248your terminal supports it, you may also specify 24-bit RGB values as 249hex, like `#ff0ab3`. 250+ 251The accepted attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`, `blink`, `reverse`, 252`italic`, and `strike` (for crossed-out or "strikethrough" letters). 253The position of any attributes with respect to the colors 254(before, after, or in between), doesn't matter. Specific attributes may 255be turned off by prefixing them with `no` or `no-` (e.g., `noreverse`, 256`no-ul`, etc). 257+ 258An empty color string produces no color effect at all. This can be used 259to avoid coloring specific elements without disabling color entirely. 260+ 261For git's pre-defined color slots, the attributes are meant to be reset 262at the beginning of each item in the colored output. So setting 263`color.decorate.branch` to `black` will paint that branch name in a 264plain `black`, even if the previous thing on the same output line (e.g. 265opening parenthesis before the list of branch names in `log --decorate` 266output) is set to be painted with `bold` or some other attribute. 267However, custom log formats may do more complicated and layered 268coloring, and the negated forms may be useful there. 269 270pathname:: 271 A variable that takes a pathname value can be given a 272 string that begins with "`~/`" or "`~user/`", and the usual 273 tilde expansion happens to such a string: `~/` 274 is expanded to the value of `$HOME`, and `~user/` to the 275 specified user's home directory. 276 277 278Variables 279~~~~~~~~~ 280 281Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete. 282For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description 283in the appropriate manual page. 284 285Other git-related tools may and do use their own variables. When 286inventing new variables for use in your own tool, make sure their 287names do not conflict with those that are used by Git itself and 288other popular tools, and describe them in your documentation. 289 290include::config/advice.txt[] 291 292include::config/core.txt[] 293 294include::config/add.txt[] 295 296include::config/alias.txt[] 297 298include::config/am.txt[] 299 300include::config/apply.txt[] 301 302include::config/blame.txt[] 303 304include::config/branch.txt[] 305 306include::config/browser.txt[] 307 308include::config/checkout.txt[] 309 310include::config/clean.txt[] 311 312include::config/color.txt[] 313 314include::config/column.txt[] 315 316include::config/commit.txt[] 317 318include::config/credential.txt[] 319 320include::config/completion.txt[] 321 322include::config/diff.txt[] 323 324include::config/difftool.txt[] 325 326include::config/fastimport.txt[] 327 328include::config/fetch.txt[] 329 330include::config/format.txt[] 331 332include::config/filter.txt[] 333 334include::config/fsck.txt[] 335 336include::config/gc.txt[] 337 338include::config/gitcvs.txt[] 339 340include::config/gitweb.txt[] 341 342include::config/grep.txt[] 343 344include::config/gpg.txt[] 345 346include::config/gui.txt[] 347 348include::config/guitool.txt[] 349 350include::config/help.txt[] 351 352include::config/http.txt[] 353 354include::config/i18n.txt[] 355 356include::config/imap.txt[] 357 358include::config/index.txt[] 359 360include::config/init.txt[] 361 362include::config/instaweb.txt[] 363 364include::config/interactive.txt[] 365 366include::config/log.txt[] 367 368include::config/mailinfo.txt[] 369 370include::config/mailmap.txt[] 371 372include::config/man.txt[] 373 374include::config/merge.txt[] 375 376include::config/mergetool.txt[] 377 378include::config/notes.txt[] 379 380include::config/pack.txt[] 381 382include::config/pager.txt[] 383 384include::config/pretty.txt[] 385 386include::config/protocol.txt[] 387 388include::config/pull.txt[] 389 390include::config/push.txt[] 391 392include::config/rebase.txt[] 393 394include::config/receive.txt[] 395 396include::config/remote.txt[] 397 398include::config/remotes.txt[] 399 400include::config/repack.txt[] 401 402include::config/rerere.txt[] 403 404include::config/reset.txt[] 405 406include::config/sendemail.txt[] 407 408include::config/sequencer.txt[] 409 410include::config/showbranch.txt[] 411 412include::config/splitindex.txt[] 413 414include::config/ssh.txt[] 415 416include::config/status.txt[] 417 418include::config/stash.txt[] 419 420include::config/submodule.txt[] 421 422include::config/tag.txt[] 423 424include::config/transfer.txt[] 425 426uploadarchive.allowUnreachable:: 427 If true, allow clients to use `git archive --remote` to request 428 any tree, whether reachable from the ref tips or not. See the 429 discussion in the "SECURITY" section of 430 linkgit:git-upload-archive[1] for more details. Defaults to 431 `false`. 432 433uploadpack.hideRefs:: 434 This variable is the same as `transfer.hideRefs`, but applies 435 only to `upload-pack` (and so affects only fetches, not pushes). 436 An attempt to fetch a hidden ref by `git fetch` will fail. See 437 also `uploadpack.allowTipSHA1InWant`. 438 439uploadpack.allowTipSHA1InWant:: 440 When `uploadpack.hideRefs` is in effect, allow `upload-pack` 441 to accept a fetch request that asks for an object at the tip 442 of a hidden ref (by default, such a request is rejected). 443 See also `uploadpack.hideRefs`. Even if this is false, a client 444 may be able to steal objects via the techniques described in the 445 "SECURITY" section of the linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] man page; it's 446 best to keep private data in a separate repository. 447 448uploadpack.allowReachableSHA1InWant:: 449 Allow `upload-pack` to accept a fetch request that asks for an 450 object that is reachable from any ref tip. However, note that 451 calculating object reachability is computationally expensive. 452 Defaults to `false`. Even if this is false, a client may be able 453 to steal objects via the techniques described in the "SECURITY" 454 section of the linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] man page; it's best to 455 keep private data in a separate repository. 456 457uploadpack.allowAnySHA1InWant:: 458 Allow `upload-pack` to accept a fetch request that asks for any 459 object at all. 460 Defaults to `false`. 461 462uploadpack.keepAlive:: 463 When `upload-pack` has started `pack-objects`, there may be a 464 quiet period while `pack-objects` prepares the pack. Normally 465 it would output progress information, but if `--quiet` was used 466 for the fetch, `pack-objects` will output nothing at all until 467 the pack data begins. Some clients and networks may consider 468 the server to be hung and give up. Setting this option instructs 469 `upload-pack` to send an empty keepalive packet every 470 `uploadpack.keepAlive` seconds. Setting this option to 0 471 disables keepalive packets entirely. The default is 5 seconds. 472 473uploadpack.packObjectsHook:: 474 If this option is set, when `upload-pack` would run 475 `git pack-objects` to create a packfile for a client, it will 476 run this shell command instead. The `pack-objects` command and 477 arguments it _would_ have run (including the `git pack-objects` 478 at the beginning) are appended to the shell command. The stdin 479 and stdout of the hook are treated as if `pack-objects` itself 480 was run. I.e., `upload-pack` will feed input intended for 481 `pack-objects` to the hook, and expects a completed packfile on 482 stdout. 483+ 484Note that this configuration variable is ignored if it is seen in the 485repository-level config (this is a safety measure against fetching from 486untrusted repositories). 487 488uploadpack.allowFilter:: 489 If this option is set, `upload-pack` will support partial 490 clone and partial fetch object filtering. 491 492uploadpack.allowRefInWant:: 493 If this option is set, `upload-pack` will support the `ref-in-want` 494 feature of the protocol version 2 `fetch` command. This feature 495 is intended for the benefit of load-balanced servers which may 496 not have the same view of what OIDs their refs point to due to 497 replication delay. 498 499url.<base>.insteadOf:: 500 Any URL that starts with this value will be rewritten to 501 start, instead, with <base>. In cases where some site serves a 502 large number of repositories, and serves them with multiple 503 access methods, and some users need to use different access 504 methods, this feature allows people to specify any of the 505 equivalent URLs and have Git automatically rewrite the URL to 506 the best alternative for the particular user, even for a 507 never-before-seen repository on the site. When more than one 508 insteadOf strings match a given URL, the longest match is used. 509+ 510Note that any protocol restrictions will be applied to the rewritten 511URL. If the rewrite changes the URL to use a custom protocol or remote 512helper, you may need to adjust the `protocol.*.allow` config to permit 513the request. In particular, protocols you expect to use for submodules 514must be set to `always` rather than the default of `user`. See the 515description of `protocol.allow` above. 516 517url.<base>.pushInsteadOf:: 518 Any URL that starts with this value will not be pushed to; 519 instead, it will be rewritten to start with <base>, and the 520 resulting URL will be pushed to. In cases where some site serves 521 a large number of repositories, and serves them with multiple 522 access methods, some of which do not allow push, this feature 523 allows people to specify a pull-only URL and have Git 524 automatically use an appropriate URL to push, even for a 525 never-before-seen repository on the site. When more than one 526 pushInsteadOf strings match a given URL, the longest match is 527 used. If a remote has an explicit pushurl, Git will ignore this 528 setting for that remote. 529 530user.email:: 531 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits. 532 Can be overridden by the `GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL`, `GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL`, and 533 `EMAIL` environment variables. See linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]. 534 535user.name:: 536 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits. 537 Can be overridden by the `GIT_AUTHOR_NAME` and `GIT_COMMITTER_NAME` 538 environment variables. See linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]. 539 540user.useConfigOnly:: 541 Instruct Git to avoid trying to guess defaults for `user.email` 542 and `user.name`, and instead retrieve the values only from the 543 configuration. For example, if you have multiple email addresses 544 and would like to use a different one for each repository, then 545 with this configuration option set to `true` in the global config 546 along with a name, Git will prompt you to set up an email before 547 making new commits in a newly cloned repository. 548 Defaults to `false`. 549 550user.signingKey:: 551 If linkgit:git-tag[1] or linkgit:git-commit[1] is not selecting the 552 key you want it to automatically when creating a signed tag or 553 commit, you can override the default selection with this variable. 554 This option is passed unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, 555 so you may specify a key using any method that gpg supports. 556 557versionsort.prereleaseSuffix (deprecated):: 558 Deprecated alias for `versionsort.suffix`. Ignored if 559 `versionsort.suffix` is set. 560 561versionsort.suffix:: 562 Even when version sort is used in linkgit:git-tag[1], tagnames 563 with the same base version but different suffixes are still sorted 564 lexicographically, resulting e.g. in prerelease tags appearing 565 after the main release (e.g. "1.0-rc1" after "1.0"). This 566 variable can be specified to determine the sorting order of tags 567 with different suffixes. 568+ 569By specifying a single suffix in this variable, any tagname containing 570that suffix will appear before the corresponding main release. E.g. if 571the variable is set to "-rc", then all "1.0-rcX" tags will appear before 572"1.0". If specified multiple times, once per suffix, then the order of 573suffixes in the configuration will determine the sorting order of tagnames 574with those suffixes. E.g. if "-pre" appears before "-rc" in the 575configuration, then all "1.0-preX" tags will be listed before any 576"1.0-rcX" tags. The placement of the main release tag relative to tags 577with various suffixes can be determined by specifying the empty suffix 578among those other suffixes. E.g. if the suffixes "-rc", "", "-ck" and 579"-bfs" appear in the configuration in this order, then all "v4.8-rcX" tags 580are listed first, followed by "v4.8", then "v4.8-ckX" and finally 581"v4.8-bfsX". 582+ 583If more than one suffixes match the same tagname, then that tagname will 584be sorted according to the suffix which starts at the earliest position in 585the tagname. If more than one different matching suffixes start at 586that earliest position, then that tagname will be sorted according to the 587longest of those suffixes. 588The sorting order between different suffixes is undefined if they are 589in multiple config files. 590 591web.browser:: 592 Specify a web browser that may be used by some commands. 593 Currently only linkgit:git-instaweb[1] and linkgit:git-help[1] 594 may use it. 595 596worktree.guessRemote:: 597 With `add`, if no branch argument, and neither of `-b` nor 598 `-B` nor `--detach` are given, the command defaults to 599 creating a new branch from HEAD. If `worktree.guessRemote` is 600 set to true, `worktree add` tries to find a remote-tracking 601 branch whose name uniquely matches the new branch name. If 602 such a branch exists, it is checked out and set as "upstream" 603 for the new branch. If no such match can be found, it falls 604 back to creating a new branch from the current HEAD.