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.autocrlf:: 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. 129 130core.symlinks:: 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. 136 137core.gitProxy:: 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. 145+ 146Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable 147(which always applies universally, without the special "for" 148handling). 149 150core.ignoreStat:: 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]. 155 False by default. 156 157core.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. 162 163core.bare:: 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]. 168+ 169This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or 170gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created. By default a 171repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare = 172false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare 173= true). 174 175core.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. 182+ 183This information can be used to determine what commit 184was the tip of a branch "2 days ago". 185+ 186This value is true by default in a repository that has 187a working directory associated with it, and false by 188default in a bare repository. 189 190core.repositoryFormatVersion:: 191 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout 192 version. 193 194core.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. 201 202core.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. 205 206core.compression:: 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 210 slowest. 211 212core.legacyheaders:: 213 A boolean which 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. 221+ 222To let git use the new loose object format, you have to 223set core.legacyheaders to false. 224 225core.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. 233+ 234Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32 235MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should 236be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do 237not need to adjust this value. 238+ 239Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 240 241core.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. 246+ 247Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms. 248This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on 249the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value. 250+ 251Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 252 253core.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. 259+ 260Default is 16 MiB on all platforms. This should be reasonable 261for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects. 262You probably do not need to adjust this value. 263+ 264Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 265 266core.excludeFile:: 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. 270 271alias.*:: 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. 279 280 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". 285 286apply.whitespace:: 287 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way 288 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1]. 289 290branch.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. 296 297branch.<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". 300 301branch.<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. 314 315color.branch:: 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. 320 321color.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 325 refs). 326+ 327The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most 328two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors 329accepted 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 332second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any, 333doesn't matter. 334 335color.diff:: 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. 339 340color.diff.<slot>:: 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>. 348 349color.pager:: 350 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in 351 use (default is true). 352 353color.status:: 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. 358 359color.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>. 366 367diff.renameLimit:: 368 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename 369 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'. 370 371diff.renames:: 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. 375 376fetch.unpackLimit:: 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. 385 386format.headers:: 387 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted 388 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1]. 389 390format.suffix:: 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). 394 395gc.packrefs:: 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`. 405 406gc.reflogexpire:: 407 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 408 this time; defaults to 90 days. 409 410gc.reflogexpireunreachable:: 411 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 412 this time and are not reachable from the current tip; 413 defaults to 30 days. 414 415gc.rerereresolved:: 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]. 419 420gc.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]. 424 425gitcvs.enabled:: 426 Whether the cvs server interface is enabled for this repository. 427 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 428 429gitcvs.logfile:: 430 Path to a log file where the cvs server interface well... logs 431 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 432 433gitcvs.allbinary:: 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]. 439 440http.sslVerify:: 441 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 442 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment 443 variable. 444 445http.sslCert:: 446 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 447 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment 448 variable. 449 450http.sslKey:: 451 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing 452 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment 453 variable. 454 455http.sslCAInfo:: 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. 459 460http.sslCAPath:: 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. 464 465http.maxRequests:: 466 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden 467 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5. 468 469http.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. 474 475http.noEPSV:: 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). 480 481i18n.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'. 487 488i18n.logOutputEncoding:: 489 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when 490 running `git-log` and friends. 491 492log.showroot:: 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. 497 498merge.summary:: 499 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created 500 merge commit messages. False by default. 501 502merge.tool:: 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" 506 507merge.verbosity:: 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. 513 514pack.window:: 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. 517 518pull.octopus:: 519 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches 520 at once. 521 522pull.twohead:: 523 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch. 524 525remote.<name>.url:: 526 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or 527 gitlink:git-push[1]. 528 529remote.<name>.fetch:: 530 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See 531 gitlink:git-fetch[1]. 532 533remote.<name>.push:: 534 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See 535 gitlink:git-push[1]. 536 537remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate:: 538 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating 539 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1]. 540 541remote.<name>.receivepack:: 542 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See 543 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1]. 544 545remote.<name>.uploadpack:: 546 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See 547 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]. 548 549remote.<name>.tagopt:: 550 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching 551 from remote <name> 552 553remotes.<group>:: 554 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update 555 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1]. 556 557repack.usedeltabaseoffset:: 558 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses 559 delta-base offset. Defaults to false. 560 561show.difftree:: 562 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 563 for gitlink:git-show[1]. 564 565showbranch.default:: 566 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 567 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 568 569tar.umask:: 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. 579 580user.email:: 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]. 584 585user.name:: 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]. 589 590user.signingkey:: 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. 596 597whatchanged.difftree:: 598 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 599 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1]. 600 601imap:: 602 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described 603 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1]. 604 605receive.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. 613 614receive.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. 619 620transfer.unpackLimit:: 621 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are 622 not set, the value of this variable is used instead. 623 624