Documentation / config.txton commit diff --no-index: support /dev/null as filename (0c725f1)
   1CONFIGURATION FILE
   2------------------
   3
   4The git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect
   5the git command's behavior. `.git/config` file for each repository
   6is used to store the information for that repository, and
   7`$HOME/.gitconfig` is used to store per user information to give
   8fallback values for `.git/config` file. The file `/etc/gitconfig`
   9can be used to store system-wide defaults.
  10
  11They can be used by both the git plumbing
  12and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where
  13in the fully qualified variable name 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 and only alphanumeric
  16characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times.
  17
  18Syntax
  19~~~~~~
  20
  21The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
  22ignored.  The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
  23blank lines are ignored.
  24
  25The file consists of sections and variables.  A section begins with
  26the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
  27section begins.  Section names are not case sensitive.  Only alphanumeric
  28characters, '`-`' and '`.`' are allowed in section names.  Each variable
  29must belong to some section, which means that there must be section
  30header before first setting of a variable.
  31
  32Sections can be further divided into subsections.  To begin a subsection
  33put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name,
  34in the section header, like in example below:
  35
  36--------
  37        [section "subsection"]
  38
  39--------
  40
  41Subsection names can contain any characters except newline (doublequote
  42'`"`' and backslash have to be escaped as '`\"`' and '`\\`',
  43respectively) and are case sensitive.  Section header cannot span multiple
  44lines.  Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection.
  45You can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you
  46don't need to.
  47
  48There is also (case insensitive) alternative `[section.subsection]` syntax.
  49In this syntax subsection names follow the same restrictions as for section
  50name.
  51
  52All 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
  54is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true".
  55The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
  56characters and '`-`' are allowed.  There can be more than one value
  57for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued.
  58
  59Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded.
  60Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim.
  61
  62The values following the equals sign in variable assign are all either
  63a string, an integer, or a boolean.  Boolean values may be given as yes/no,
  640/1 or true/false.  Case is not significant in boolean values, when
  65converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type specifier;
  66`git-config` will ensure that the output is "true" or "false".
  67
  68String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes.
  69You need to enclose variable value in double quotes if you want to
  70preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if variable value contains
  71beginning of comment characters (if it contains '#' or ';').
  72Double quote '`"`' and backslash '`\`' characters in variable value must
  73be 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).  No other char escape sequence, nor octal
  78char sequences are valid.
  79
  80Variable value ending in a '`\`' is continued on the next line in the
  81customary UNIX fashion.
  82
  83Some variables may require special value format.
  84
  85Example
  86~~~~~~~
  87
  88        # Core variables
  89        [core]
  90                ; Don't trust file modes
  91                filemode = false
  92
  93        # Our diff algorithm
  94        [diff]
  95                external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u"
  96                renames = true
  97
  98        [branch "devel"]
  99                remote = origin
 100                merge = refs/heads/devel
 101
 102        # Proxy settings
 103        [core]
 104                gitProxy="ssh" for "ssh://kernel.org/"
 105                gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest
 106
 107Variables
 108~~~~~~~~~
 109
 110Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete.
 111For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description
 112in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core
 113porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation.
 114
 115core.fileMode::
 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.
 119
 120core.gitProxy::
 121        A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead
 122        of establishing direct connection to the remote server when
 123        using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is
 124        in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only
 125        on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable
 126        may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order;
 127        the first match wins.
 128+
 129Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable
 130(which always applies universally, without the special "for"
 131handling).
 132
 133core.ignoreStat::
 134        The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you
 135        mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes
 136        by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very
 137        slow, such as Microsoft Windows.  See gitlink:git-update-index[1].
 138        False by default.
 139
 140core.preferSymlinkRefs::
 141        Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD
 142        and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
 143        This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
 144        expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
 145
 146core.bare::
 147        If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no
 148        working directory associated with it.  If this is the case a
 149        number of commands that require a working directory will be
 150        disabled, such as gitlink:git-add[1] or gitlink:git-merge[1].
 151+
 152This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or
 153gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created.  By default a
 154repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare =
 155false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare
 156= true).
 157
 158core.logAllRefUpdates::
 159        Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
 160        "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
 161        SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
 162        only when the file exists.  If this configuration
 163        variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
 164        file is automatically created for branch heads.
 165+
 166This information can be used to determine what commit
 167was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
 168+
 169This value is true by default in a repository that has
 170a working directory associated with it, and false by
 171default in a bare repository.
 172
 173core.repositoryFormatVersion::
 174        Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
 175        version.
 176
 177core.sharedRepository::
 178        When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
 179        several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
 180        group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
 181        repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
 182        group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
 183        reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default.
 184
 185core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
 186        If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
 187        and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
 188
 189core.compression::
 190        An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
 191        are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
 192        compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
 193        slowest.
 194
 195core.legacyheaders::
 196        A boolean which
 197        changes the format of loose objects so that they are more
 198        efficient to pack and to send out of the repository over git
 199        native protocol, since v1.4.2.  However, loose objects
 200        written in the new format cannot be read by git older than
 201        that version; people fetching from your repository using
 202        older versions of git over dumb transports (e.g. http)
 203        will also be affected.
 204+
 205To let git use the new loose object format, you have to
 206set core.legacyheaders to false.
 207
 208core.packedGitWindowSize::
 209        Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
 210        single mapping operation.  Larger window sizes may allow
 211        your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
 212        more quickly.  Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
 213        performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
 214        memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
 215        a large number of large pack files.
 216+
 217Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
 218MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms.  This should
 219be reasonable for all users/operating systems.  You probably do
 220not need to adjust this value.
 221+
 222Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 223
 224core.packedGitLimit::
 225        Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
 226        from pack files.  If Git needs to access more than this many
 227        bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
 228        regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
 229+
 230Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
 231This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
 232the largest projects.  You probably do not need to adjust this value.
 233+
 234Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 235
 236alias.*::
 237        Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
 238        after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
 239        "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
 240        confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
 241        hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
 242        spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
 243        quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
 244
 245        If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
 246        it will be treated as a shell command.  For example, defining
 247        "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
 248        "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
 249        "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
 250
 251apply.whitespace::
 252        Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
 253        as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
 254
 255branch.<name>.remote::
 256        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
 257        If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
 258
 259branch.<name>.merge::
 260        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
 261        be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
 262        a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
 263        given by "branch.<name>.remote".
 264        The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
 265        `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
 266        this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
 267        Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
 268
 269color.branch::
 270        A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
 271        gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
 272        `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
 273        only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
 274
 275color.branch.<slot>::
 276        Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
 277        `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
 278        `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
 279        refs).
 280+
 281The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
 282two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces.  The colors
 283accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
 284`magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
 285`blink` and `reverse`.  The first color given is the foreground; the
 286second is the background.  The position of the attribute, if any,
 287doesn't matter.
 288
 289color.diff::
 290        When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
 291        When false (or `never`), never.  When set to `auto`, use
 292        colors only when the output is to the terminal.
 293
 294color.diff.<slot>::
 295        Use customized color for diff colorization.  `<slot>` specifies
 296        which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
 297        of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
 298        (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
 299        `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
 300        whitespace).  The values of these variables may be specified as
 301        in color.branch.<slot>.
 302
 303color.pager::
 304        A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
 305        use (default is true).
 306
 307color.status::
 308        A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
 309        gitlink:git-status[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.
 312
 313color.status.<slot>::
 314        Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
 315        one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
 316        `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
 317        `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
 318        or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
 319        these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
 320
 321diff.renameLimit::
 322        The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
 323        detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
 324
 325diff.renames::
 326        Tells git to detect renames.  If set to any boolean value, it
 327        will enable basic rename detection.  If set to "copies" or
 328        "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
 329
 330fetch.unpackLimit::
 331        If the number of objects fetched over the git native
 332        transfer is below this
 333        limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
 334        files. However if the number of received objects equals or
 335        exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
 336        a pack, after adding any missing delta bases.  Storing the
 337        pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
 338        especially on slow filesystems.
 339
 340format.headers::
 341        Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
 342        by mail.  See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
 343
 344format.suffix::
 345        The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
 346        `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
 347        include the dot if you want it).
 348
 349gc.packrefs::
 350        `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
 351        default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
 352        from the repository.  Setting this to `true` lets `git
 353        gc` to run `git pack-refs`.  Setting this to `false` tells
 354        `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
 355        `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
 356        support such clients.  The default setting will change to `true`
 357        at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
 358        prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
 359
 360gc.reflogexpire::
 361        `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
 362        this time; defaults to 90 days.
 363
 364gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
 365        `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
 366        this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
 367        defaults to 30 days.
 368
 369gc.rerereresolved::
 370        Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
 371        kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
 372        The default is 60 days.  See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
 373
 374gc.rerereunresolved::
 375        Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
 376        kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
 377        The default is 15 days.  See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
 378
 379gitcvs.enabled::
 380        Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository.
 381        See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 382
 383gitcvs.logfile::
 384        Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs
 385        various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 386
 387http.sslVerify::
 388        Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 389        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
 390        variable.
 391
 392http.sslCert::
 393        File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 394        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
 395        variable.
 396
 397http.sslKey::
 398        File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
 399        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
 400        variable.
 401
 402http.sslCAInfo::
 403        File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
 404        fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
 405        'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
 406
 407http.sslCAPath::
 408        Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
 409        with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
 410        by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
 411
 412http.maxRequests::
 413        How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
 414        by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
 415
 416http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
 417        If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
 418        for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
 419        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
 420        'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
 421
 422http.noEPSV::
 423        A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
 424        This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't
 425        support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
 426        environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
 427
 428i18n.commitEncoding::
 429        Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
 430        does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
 431        importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
 432        browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
 433        porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
 434
 435i18n.logOutputEncoding::
 436        Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
 437        running `git-log` and friends.
 438
 439log.showroot::
 440        If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
 441        This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
 442        Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
 443        normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
 444
 445merge.summary::
 446        Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
 447        merge commit messages. False by default.
 448
 449merge.verbosity::
 450        Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
 451        strategy.  Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
 452        message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
 453        conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes.  Level 5 and
 454        above outputs debugging information.  The default is level 2.
 455
 456pack.window::
 457        The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
 458        window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
 459
 460pull.octopus::
 461        The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
 462        at once.
 463
 464pull.twohead::
 465        The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
 466
 467remote.<name>.url::
 468        The URL of a remote repository.  See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
 469        gitlink:git-push[1].
 470
 471remote.<name>.fetch::
 472        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
 473        gitlink:git-fetch[1].
 474
 475remote.<name>.push::
 476        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
 477        gitlink:git-push[1].
 478
 479remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
 480        If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
 481        using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].
 482
 483remote.<name>.receivepack::
 484        The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing.  See
 485        option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
 486
 487remote.<name>.uploadpack::
 488        The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching.  See
 489        option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
 490
 491remote.<name>.tagopt::
 492        Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching
 493        from remote <name>
 494
 495remotes.<group>::
 496        The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
 497        <group>".  See gitlink:git-remote[1].
 498
 499repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
 500        Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
 501        delta-base offset.  Defaults to false.
 502
 503show.difftree::
 504        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 505        for gitlink:git-show[1].
 506
 507showbranch.default::
 508        The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 509        See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 510
 511tar.umask::
 512        By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
 513        to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
 514        such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
 515        With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
 516        gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
 517        The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
 518        be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
 519        the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
 520        value remains 0, which means world read-write.
 521
 522user.email::
 523        Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 524        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
 525        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 526
 527user.name::
 528        Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 529        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
 530        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 531
 532user.signingkey::
 533        If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
 534        automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
 535        default selection with this variable.  This option is passed
 536        unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
 537        using any method that gpg supports.
 538
 539whatchanged.difftree::
 540        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 541        for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
 542
 543imap::
 544        The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
 545        in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
 546
 547receive.unpackLimit::
 548        If the number of objects received in a push is below this
 549        limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
 550        files. However if the number of received objects equals or
 551        exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
 552        a pack, after adding any missing delta bases.  Storing the
 553        pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
 554        especially on slow filesystems.
 555
 556receive.denyNonFastForwards::
 557        If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
 558        not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
 559        even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
 560        set when initializing a shared repository.
 561
 562transfer.unpackLimit::
 563        When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
 564        not set, the value of this variable is used instead.
 565
 566