Documentation / config.txton commit Add RelNotes 1.5.1 (6fc6668)
   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.
   9
  10They can be used by both the git plumbing
  11and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where
  12in the fully qualified variable name the variable itself is the last
  13dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
  14dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
  15characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times.
  16
  17Syntax
  18~~~~~~
  19
  20The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
  21ignored.  The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
  22blank lines are ignored.
  23
  24The file consists of sections and variables.  A section begins with
  25the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
  26section begins.  Section names are not case sensitive.  Only alphanumeric
  27characters, '`-`' and '`.`' are allowed in section names.  Each variable
  28must belong to some section, which means that there must be section
  29header before first setting of a variable.
  30
  31Sections can be further divided into subsections.  To begin a subsection
  32put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name,
  33in the section header, like in example below:
  34
  35--------
  36        [section "subsection"]
  37
  38--------
  39
  40Subsection names can contain any characters except newline (doublequote
  41'`"`' and backslash have to be escaped as '`\"`' and '`\\`',
  42respectively) and are case sensitive.  Section header cannot span multiple
  43lines.  Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection.
  44You can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you
  45don't need to.
  46
  47There is also (case insensitive) alternative `[section.subsection]` syntax.
  48In this syntax subsection names follow the same restrictions as for section
  49name.
  50
  51All the other lines are recognized as setting variables, in the form
  52'name = value'.  If there is no equal sign on the line, the entire line
  53is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true".
  54The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
  55characters and '`-`' are allowed.  There can be more than one value
  56for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued.
  57
  58Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded.
  59Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim.
  60
  61The values following the equals sign in variable assign are all either
  62a string, an integer, or a boolean.  Boolean values may be given as yes/no,
  630/1 or true/false.  Case is not significant in boolean values, when
  64converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type specifier;
  65`git-config` will ensure that the output is "true" or "false".
  66
  67String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes.
  68You need to enclose variable value in double quotes if you want to
  69preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if variable value contains
  70beginning of comment characters (if it contains '#' or ';').
  71Double quote '`"`' and backslash '`\`' characters in variable value must
  72be escaped: use '`\"`' for '`"`' and '`\\`' for '`\`'.
  73
  74The following escape sequences (beside '`\"`' and '`\\`') are recognized:
  75'`\n`' for newline character (NL), '`\t`' for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB)
  76and '`\b`' for backspace (BS).  No other char escape sequence, nor octal
  77char sequences are valid.
  78
  79Variable value ending in a '`\`' is continued on the next line in the
  80customary UNIX fashion.
  81
  82Some variables may require special value format.
  83
  84Example
  85~~~~~~~
  86
  87        # Core variables
  88        [core]
  89                ; Don't trust file modes
  90                filemode = false
  91
  92        # Our diff algorithm
  93        [diff]
  94                external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u"
  95                renames = true
  96
  97        [branch "devel"]
  98                remote = origin
  99                merge = refs/heads/devel
 100
 101        # Proxy settings
 102        [core]
 103                gitProxy="ssh" for "ssh://kernel.org/"
 104                gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest
 105
 106Variables
 107~~~~~~~~~
 108
 109Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete.
 110For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description
 111in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core
 112porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation.
 113
 114core.fileMode::
 115        If false, the executable bit differences between the index and
 116        the working copy are ignored; useful on broken filesystems like FAT.
 117        See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. True by default.
 118
 119core.gitProxy::
 120        A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead
 121        of establishing direct connection to the remote server when
 122        using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is
 123        in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only
 124        on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable
 125        may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order;
 126        the first match wins.
 127+
 128Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable
 129(which always applies universally, without the special "for"
 130handling).
 131
 132core.ignoreStat::
 133        The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you
 134        mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes
 135        by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very
 136        slow, such as Microsoft Windows.  See gitlink:git-update-index[1].
 137        False by default.
 138
 139core.preferSymlinkRefs::
 140        Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD
 141        and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
 142        This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
 143        expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
 144
 145core.logAllRefUpdates::
 146        Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
 147        "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
 148        SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
 149        only when the file exists.  If this configuration
 150        variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
 151        file is automatically created for branch heads.
 152+
 153This information can be used to determine what commit
 154was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
 155+
 156This value is true by default in a repository that has
 157a working directory associated with it, and false by
 158default in a bare repository.
 159
 160core.repositoryFormatVersion::
 161        Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
 162        version.
 163
 164core.sharedRepository::
 165        When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
 166        several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
 167        group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
 168        repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
 169        group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
 170        reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default.
 171
 172core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
 173        If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
 174        and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
 175
 176core.compression::
 177        An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
 178        are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
 179        compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
 180        slowest.
 181
 182core.legacyheaders::
 183        A boolean which enables the legacy object header format in case
 184        you want to interoperate with old clients accessing the object
 185        database directly (where the "http://" and "rsync://" protocols
 186        count as direct access).
 187
 188core.packedGitWindowSize::
 189        Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
 190        single mapping operation.  Larger window sizes may allow
 191        your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
 192        more quickly.  Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
 193        performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
 194        memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
 195        a large number of large pack files.
 196+
 197Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
 198MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms.  This should
 199be reasonable for all users/operating systems.  You probably do
 200not need to adjust this value.
 201+
 202Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 203
 204core.packedGitLimit::
 205        Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
 206        from pack files.  If Git needs to access more than this many
 207        bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
 208        regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
 209+
 210Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
 211This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
 212the largest projects.  You probably do not need to adjust this value.
 213+
 214Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 215
 216alias.*::
 217        Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
 218        after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
 219        "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
 220        confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
 221        hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
 222        spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
 223        quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
 224
 225        If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
 226        it will be treated as a shell command.  For example, defining
 227        "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
 228        "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
 229        "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
 230
 231apply.whitespace::
 232        Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
 233        as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
 234
 235branch.<name>.remote::
 236        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
 237        If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
 238
 239branch.<name>.merge::
 240        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
 241        be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
 242        a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
 243        given by "branch.<name>.remote".
 244        The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
 245        `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
 246        this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
 247        Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
 248
 249color.branch::
 250        A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
 251        gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
 252        `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
 253        only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
 254
 255color.branch.<slot>::
 256        Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
 257        `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
 258        `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
 259        refs).
 260+
 261The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
 262two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces.  The colors
 263accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
 264`magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
 265`blink` and `reverse`.  The first color given is the foreground; the
 266second is the background.  The position of the attribute, if any,
 267doesn't matter.
 268
 269color.diff::
 270        When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
 271        When false (or `never`), never.  When set to `auto`, use
 272        colors only when the output is to the terminal.
 273
 274color.diff.<slot>::
 275        Use customized color for diff colorization.  `<slot>` specifies
 276        which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
 277        of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
 278        (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
 279        `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
 280        whitespace).  The values of these variables may be specified as
 281        in color.branch.<slot>.
 282
 283color.pager::
 284        A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
 285        use (default is true).
 286
 287color.status::
 288        A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
 289        gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
 290        `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
 291        only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
 292
 293color.status.<slot>::
 294        Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
 295        one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
 296        `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
 297        `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
 298        or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
 299        these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
 300
 301diff.renameLimit::
 302        The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
 303        detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
 304
 305diff.renames::
 306        Tells git to detect renames.  If set to any boolean value, it
 307        will enable basic rename detection.  If set to "copies" or
 308        "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
 309
 310fetch.unpackLimit::
 311        If the number of objects fetched over the git native
 312        transfer is below this
 313        limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
 314        files. However if the number of received objects equals or
 315        exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
 316        a pack, after adding any missing delta bases.  Storing the
 317        pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
 318        especially on slow filesystems.
 319
 320format.headers::
 321        Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
 322        by mail.  See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
 323
 324gc.packrefs::
 325        `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
 326        default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
 327        from the repository.  Setting this to `true` lets `git
 328        gc` to run `git pack-refs`.  Setting this to `false` tells
 329        `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
 330        `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
 331        support such clients.  The default setting will change to `true`
 332        at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
 333        prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
 334
 335gc.reflogexpire::
 336        `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
 337        this time; defaults to 90 days.
 338
 339gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
 340        `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
 341        this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
 342        defaults to 30 days.
 343
 344gc.rerereresolved::
 345        Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
 346        kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
 347        The default is 60 days.  See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
 348
 349gc.rerereunresolved::
 350        Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
 351        kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
 352        The default is 15 days.  See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
 353
 354gitcvs.enabled::
 355        Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository.
 356        See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 357
 358gitcvs.logfile::
 359        Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs
 360        various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 361
 362http.sslVerify::
 363        Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 364        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
 365        variable.
 366
 367http.sslCert::
 368        File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 369        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
 370        variable.
 371
 372http.sslKey::
 373        File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
 374        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
 375        variable.
 376
 377http.sslCAInfo::
 378        File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
 379        fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
 380        'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
 381
 382http.sslCAPath::
 383        Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
 384        with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
 385        by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
 386
 387http.maxRequests::
 388        How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
 389        by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
 390
 391http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
 392        If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
 393        for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
 394        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
 395        'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
 396
 397http.noEPSV::
 398        A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
 399        This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't
 400        support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
 401        environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
 402
 403i18n.commitEncoding::
 404        Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
 405        does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
 406        importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
 407        browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
 408        porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
 409
 410i18n.logOutputEncoding::
 411        Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
 412        running `git-log` and friends.
 413
 414log.showroot::
 415        If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
 416        This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
 417        Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
 418        normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
 419
 420merge.summary::
 421        Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
 422        merge commit messages. False by default.
 423
 424merge.verbosity::
 425        Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
 426        strategy.  Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
 427        message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
 428        conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes.  Level 5 and
 429        above outputs debugging information.  The default is level 2.
 430
 431pack.window::
 432        The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
 433        window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
 434
 435pull.octopus::
 436        The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
 437        at once.
 438
 439pull.twohead::
 440        The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
 441
 442remote.<name>.url::
 443        The URL of a remote repository.  See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
 444        gitlink:git-push[1].
 445
 446remote.<name>.fetch::
 447        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
 448        gitlink:git-fetch[1].
 449
 450remote.<name>.push::
 451        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
 452        gitlink:git-push[1].
 453
 454remote.<name>.receivepack::
 455        The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing.  See
 456        option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
 457
 458remote.<name>.uploadpack::
 459        The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching.  See
 460        option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
 461
 462repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
 463        Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
 464        delta-base offset.  Defaults to false.
 465
 466show.difftree::
 467        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 468        for gitlink:git-show[1].
 469
 470showbranch.default::
 471        The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 472        See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 473
 474tar.umask::
 475        By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
 476        to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
 477        such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
 478        With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
 479        gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
 480        The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
 481        be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
 482        the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
 483        value remains 0, which means world read-write.
 484
 485user.email::
 486        Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 487        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
 488        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 489
 490user.name::
 491        Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 492        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
 493        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 494
 495user.signingkey::
 496        If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
 497        automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
 498        default selection with this variable.  This option is passed
 499        unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
 500        using any method that gpg supports.
 501
 502whatchanged.difftree::
 503        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 504        for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
 505
 506imap::
 507        The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
 508        in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
 509
 510receive.unpackLimit::
 511        If the number of objects received in a push is below this
 512        limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
 513        files. However if the number of received objects equals or
 514        exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
 515        a pack, after adding any missing delta bases.  Storing the
 516        pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
 517        especially on slow filesystems.
 518
 519receive.denyNonFastForwards::
 520        If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
 521        not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
 522        even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
 523        set when initializing a shared repository.
 524
 525transfer.unpackLimit::
 526        When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
 527        not set, the value of this variable is used instead.
 528
 529