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.symlinks:: 121 If false, symbolic links are checked out as small plain files that 122 contain the link text. gitlink:git-update-index[1] and 123 gitlink:git-add[1] will not change the recorded type to regular 124 file. Useful on filesystems like FAT that do not support 125 symbolic links. True by default. 126 127core.gitProxy:: 128 A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead 129 of establishing direct connection to the remote server when 130 using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is 131 in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only 132 on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable 133 may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order; 134 the first match wins. 135+ 136Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable 137(which always applies universally, without the special "for" 138handling). 139 140core.ignoreStat:: 141 The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you 142 mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes 143 by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very 144 slow, such as Microsoft Windows. See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. 145 False by default. 146 147core.preferSymlinkRefs:: 148 Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD 149 and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links. 150 This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that 151 expect HEAD to be a symbolic link. 152 153core.bare:: 154 If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no 155 working directory associated with it. If this is the case a 156 number of commands that require a working directory will be 157 disabled, such as gitlink:git-add[1] or gitlink:git-merge[1]. 158+ 159This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or 160gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created. By default a 161repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare = 162false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare 163= true). 164 165core.logAllRefUpdates:: 166 Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file 167 "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old 168 SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but 169 only when the file exists. If this configuration 170 variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>" 171 file is automatically created for branch heads. 172+ 173This information can be used to determine what commit 174was the tip of a branch "2 days ago". 175+ 176This value is true by default in a repository that has 177a working directory associated with it, and false by 178default in a bare repository. 179 180core.repositoryFormatVersion:: 181 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout 182 version. 183 184core.sharedRepository:: 185 When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between 186 several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are 187 group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the 188 repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being 189 group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions 190 reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default. 191 192core.warnAmbiguousRefs:: 193 If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous 194 and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default. 195 196core.compression:: 197 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that 198 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no 199 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being 200 slowest. 201 202core.legacyheaders:: 203 A boolean which 204 changes the format of loose objects so that they are more 205 efficient to pack and to send out of the repository over git 206 native protocol, since v1.4.2. However, loose objects 207 written in the new format cannot be read by git older than 208 that version; people fetching from your repository using 209 older versions of git over dumb transports (e.g. http) 210 will also be affected. 211+ 212To let git use the new loose object format, you have to 213set core.legacyheaders to false. 214 215core.packedGitWindowSize:: 216 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a 217 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow 218 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files 219 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect 220 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's 221 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing 222 a large number of large pack files. 223+ 224Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32 225MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should 226be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do 227not need to adjust this value. 228+ 229Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 230 231core.packedGitLimit:: 232 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory 233 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many 234 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing 235 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process. 236+ 237Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms. 238This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on 239the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value. 240+ 241Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 242 243core.deltaBaseCacheLimit:: 244 Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects 245 that multiple deltafied objects reference. By storing the 246 entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able 247 to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base 248 objects multiple times. 249+ 250Default is 16 MiB on all platforms. This should be reasonable 251for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects. 252You probably do not need to adjust this value. 253+ 254Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 255 256alias.*:: 257 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g. 258 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation 259 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid 260 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that 261 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by 262 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported. 263 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them. 264 265 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point, 266 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining 267 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation 268 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command 269 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD". 270 271apply.whitespace:: 272 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way 273 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1]. 274 275branch.<name>.remote:: 276 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch. 277 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin". 278 279branch.<name>.merge:: 280 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to 281 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match 282 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote 283 given by "branch.<name>.remote". 284 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls 285 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without 286 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched. 287 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge. 288 If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from 289 another branch in the local repository, you can point 290 branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting 291 `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote. 292 293color.branch:: 294 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of 295 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), 296 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used 297 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. 298 299color.branch.<slot>:: 300 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of 301 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch), 302 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other 303 refs). 304+ 305The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most 306two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors 307accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`, 308`magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`, 309`blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the 310second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any, 311doesn't matter. 312 313color.diff:: 314 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch. 315 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use 316 colors only when the output is to the terminal. 317 318color.diff.<slot>:: 319 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies 320 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one 321 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag` 322 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines), 323 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious 324 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as 325 in color.branch.<slot>. 326 327color.pager:: 328 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in 329 use (default is true). 330 331color.status:: 332 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of 333 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), 334 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used 335 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. 336 337color.status.<slot>:: 338 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is 339 one of `header` (the header text of the status message), 340 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed), 341 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index), 342 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of 343 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>. 344 345diff.renameLimit:: 346 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename 347 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'. 348 349diff.renames:: 350 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it 351 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or 352 "copy", it will detect copies, as well. 353 354fetch.unpackLimit:: 355 If the number of objects fetched over the git native 356 transfer is below this 357 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object 358 files. However if the number of received objects equals or 359 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as 360 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the 361 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, 362 especially on slow filesystems. 363 364format.headers:: 365 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted 366 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1]. 367 368format.suffix:: 369 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix 370 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to 371 include the dot if you want it). 372 373gc.packrefs:: 374 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by 375 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch 376 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git 377 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells 378 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is 379 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to 380 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true` 381 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to 382 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`. 383 384gc.reflogexpire:: 385 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 386 this time; defaults to 90 days. 387 388gc.reflogexpireunreachable:: 389 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 390 this time and are not reachable from the current tip; 391 defaults to 30 days. 392 393gc.rerereresolved:: 394 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are 395 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 396 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 397 398gc.rerereunresolved:: 399 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are 400 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 401 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 402 403gitcvs.enabled:: 404 Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository. 405 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 406 407gitcvs.logfile:: 408 Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs 409 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 410 411http.sslVerify:: 412 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 413 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment 414 variable. 415 416http.sslCert:: 417 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 418 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment 419 variable. 420 421http.sslKey:: 422 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing 423 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment 424 variable. 425 426http.sslCAInfo:: 427 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when 428 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 429 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable. 430 431http.sslCAPath:: 432 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer 433 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden 434 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable. 435 436http.maxRequests:: 437 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden 438 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5. 439 440http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime:: 441 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit' 442 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted. 443 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and 444 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables. 445 446http.noEPSV:: 447 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl. 448 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't 449 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV' 450 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV). 451 452i18n.commitEncoding:: 453 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself 454 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when 455 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history 456 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other 457 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'. 458 459i18n.logOutputEncoding:: 460 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when 461 running `git-log` and friends. 462 463log.showroot:: 464 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event. 465 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree. 466 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which 467 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default. 468 469merge.summary:: 470 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created 471 merge commit messages. False by default. 472 473merge.tool:: 474 Controls which merge resolution program is used by 475 gitlink:git-mergetool[l]. Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff", 476 "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff" 477 478merge.verbosity:: 479 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge 480 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error 481 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only 482 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and 483 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2. 484 485pack.window:: 486 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no 487 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10. 488 489pull.octopus:: 490 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches 491 at once. 492 493pull.twohead:: 494 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch. 495 496remote.<name>.url:: 497 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or 498 gitlink:git-push[1]. 499 500remote.<name>.fetch:: 501 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See 502 gitlink:git-fetch[1]. 503 504remote.<name>.push:: 505 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See 506 gitlink:git-push[1]. 507 508remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate:: 509 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating 510 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1]. 511 512remote.<name>.receivepack:: 513 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See 514 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1]. 515 516remote.<name>.uploadpack:: 517 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See 518 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]. 519 520remote.<name>.tagopt:: 521 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching 522 from remote <name> 523 524remotes.<group>:: 525 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update 526 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1]. 527 528repack.usedeltabaseoffset:: 529 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses 530 delta-base offset. Defaults to false. 531 532show.difftree:: 533 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 534 for gitlink:git-show[1]. 535 536showbranch.default:: 537 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 538 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 539 540tar.umask:: 541 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes 542 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects 543 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects. 544 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell 545 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above. 546 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will 547 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to 548 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default 549 value remains 0, which means world read-write. 550 551user.email:: 552 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits. 553 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL' 554 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 555 556user.name:: 557 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits. 558 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME' 559 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 560 561user.signingkey:: 562 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to 563 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the 564 default selection with this variable. This option is passed 565 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key 566 using any method that gpg supports. 567 568whatchanged.difftree:: 569 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 570 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1]. 571 572imap:: 573 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described 574 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1]. 575 576receive.unpackLimit:: 577 If the number of objects received in a push is below this 578 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object 579 files. However if the number of received objects equals or 580 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as 581 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the 582 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, 583 especially on slow filesystems. 584 585receive.denyNonFastForwards:: 586 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is 587 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push, 588 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is 589 set when initializing a shared repository. 590 591transfer.unpackLimit:: 592 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are 593 not set, the value of this variable is used instead. 594 595