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 344gc.packrefs:: 345 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by 346 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch 347 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git 348 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells 349 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is 350 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to 351 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true` 352 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to 353 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`. 354 355gc.reflogexpire:: 356 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 357 this time; defaults to 90 days. 358 359gc.reflogexpireunreachable:: 360 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 361 this time and are not reachable from the current tip; 362 defaults to 30 days. 363 364gc.rerereresolved:: 365 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are 366 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 367 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 368 369gc.rerereunresolved:: 370 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are 371 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 372 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 373 374gitcvs.enabled:: 375 Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository. 376 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 377 378gitcvs.logfile:: 379 Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs 380 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 381 382http.sslVerify:: 383 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 384 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment 385 variable. 386 387http.sslCert:: 388 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 389 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment 390 variable. 391 392http.sslKey:: 393 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing 394 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment 395 variable. 396 397http.sslCAInfo:: 398 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when 399 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 400 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable. 401 402http.sslCAPath:: 403 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer 404 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden 405 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable. 406 407http.maxRequests:: 408 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden 409 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5. 410 411http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime:: 412 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit' 413 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted. 414 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and 415 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables. 416 417http.noEPSV:: 418 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl. 419 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't 420 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV' 421 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV). 422 423i18n.commitEncoding:: 424 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself 425 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when 426 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history 427 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other 428 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'. 429 430i18n.logOutputEncoding:: 431 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when 432 running `git-log` and friends. 433 434log.showroot:: 435 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event. 436 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree. 437 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which 438 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default. 439 440merge.summary:: 441 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created 442 merge commit messages. False by default. 443 444merge.verbosity:: 445 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge 446 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error 447 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only 448 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and 449 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2. 450 451pack.window:: 452 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no 453 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10. 454 455pull.octopus:: 456 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches 457 at once. 458 459pull.twohead:: 460 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch. 461 462remote.<name>.url:: 463 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or 464 gitlink:git-push[1]. 465 466remote.<name>.fetch:: 467 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See 468 gitlink:git-fetch[1]. 469 470remote.<name>.push:: 471 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See 472 gitlink:git-push[1]. 473 474remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate:: 475 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating 476 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1]. 477 478remote.<name>.receivepack:: 479 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See 480 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1]. 481 482remote.<name>.uploadpack:: 483 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See 484 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]. 485 486remotes.<group>:: 487 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update 488 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1]. 489 490repack.usedeltabaseoffset:: 491 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses 492 delta-base offset. Defaults to false. 493 494show.difftree:: 495 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 496 for gitlink:git-show[1]. 497 498showbranch.default:: 499 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 500 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 501 502tar.umask:: 503 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes 504 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects 505 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects. 506 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell 507 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above. 508 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will 509 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to 510 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default 511 value remains 0, which means world read-write. 512 513user.email:: 514 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits. 515 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL' 516 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 517 518user.name:: 519 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits. 520 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME' 521 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 522 523user.signingkey:: 524 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to 525 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the 526 default selection with this variable. This option is passed 527 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key 528 using any method that gpg supports. 529 530whatchanged.difftree:: 531 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 532 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1]. 533 534imap:: 535 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described 536 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1]. 537 538receive.unpackLimit:: 539 If the number of objects received in a push is below this 540 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object 541 files. However if the number of received objects equals or 542 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as 543 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the 544 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, 545 especially on slow filesystems. 546 547receive.denyNonFastForwards:: 548 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is 549 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push, 550 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is 551 set when initializing a shared repository. 552 553transfer.unpackLimit:: 554 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are 555 not set, the value of this variable is used instead. 556 557