Documentation / config.txton commit git-svn: save paths to tags/branches with for future reuse (88cf410)
   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.bare::
 146        If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no
 147        working directory associated with it.  If this is the case a
 148        number of commands that require a working directory will be
 149        disabled, such as gitlink:git-add[1] or gitlink:git-merge[1].
 150+
 151This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or
 152gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created.  By default a
 153repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare =
 154false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare
 155= true).
 156
 157core.logAllRefUpdates::
 158        Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
 159        "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
 160        SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
 161        only when the file exists.  If this configuration
 162        variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
 163        file is automatically created for branch heads.
 164+
 165This information can be used to determine what commit
 166was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
 167+
 168This value is true by default in a repository that has
 169a working directory associated with it, and false by
 170default in a bare repository.
 171
 172core.repositoryFormatVersion::
 173        Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
 174        version.
 175
 176core.sharedRepository::
 177        When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
 178        several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
 179        group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
 180        repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
 181        group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
 182        reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default.
 183
 184core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
 185        If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
 186        and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
 187
 188core.compression::
 189        An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
 190        are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
 191        compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
 192        slowest.
 193
 194core.legacyheaders::
 195        A boolean which enables the legacy object header format in case
 196        you want to interoperate with old clients accessing the object
 197        database directly (where the "http://" and "rsync://" protocols
 198        count as direct access).
 199
 200core.packedGitWindowSize::
 201        Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
 202        single mapping operation.  Larger window sizes may allow
 203        your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
 204        more quickly.  Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
 205        performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
 206        memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
 207        a large number of large pack files.
 208+
 209Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
 210MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms.  This should
 211be reasonable for all users/operating systems.  You probably do
 212not need to adjust this value.
 213+
 214Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 215
 216core.packedGitLimit::
 217        Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
 218        from pack files.  If Git needs to access more than this many
 219        bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
 220        regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
 221+
 222Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
 223This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
 224the largest projects.  You probably do not need to adjust this value.
 225+
 226Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 227
 228alias.*::
 229        Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
 230        after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
 231        "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
 232        confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
 233        hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
 234        spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
 235        quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
 236
 237        If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
 238        it will be treated as a shell command.  For example, defining
 239        "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
 240        "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
 241        "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
 242
 243apply.whitespace::
 244        Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
 245        as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
 246
 247branch.<name>.remote::
 248        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
 249        If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
 250
 251branch.<name>.merge::
 252        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
 253        be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
 254        a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
 255        given by "branch.<name>.remote".
 256        The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
 257        `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
 258        this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
 259        Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
 260
 261color.branch::
 262        A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
 263        gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
 264        `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
 265        only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
 266
 267color.branch.<slot>::
 268        Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
 269        `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
 270        `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
 271        refs).
 272+
 273The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
 274two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces.  The colors
 275accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
 276`magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
 277`blink` and `reverse`.  The first color given is the foreground; the
 278second is the background.  The position of the attribute, if any,
 279doesn't matter.
 280
 281color.diff::
 282        When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
 283        When false (or `never`), never.  When set to `auto`, use
 284        colors only when the output is to the terminal.
 285
 286color.diff.<slot>::
 287        Use customized color for diff colorization.  `<slot>` specifies
 288        which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
 289        of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
 290        (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
 291        `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
 292        whitespace).  The values of these variables may be specified as
 293        in color.branch.<slot>.
 294
 295color.pager::
 296        A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
 297        use (default is true).
 298
 299color.status::
 300        A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
 301        gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
 302        `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
 303        only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
 304
 305color.status.<slot>::
 306        Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
 307        one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
 308        `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
 309        `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
 310        or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
 311        these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
 312
 313diff.renameLimit::
 314        The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
 315        detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
 316
 317diff.renames::
 318        Tells git to detect renames.  If set to any boolean value, it
 319        will enable basic rename detection.  If set to "copies" or
 320        "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
 321
 322fetch.unpackLimit::
 323        If the number of objects fetched over the git native
 324        transfer is below this
 325        limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
 326        files. However if the number of received objects equals or
 327        exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
 328        a pack, after adding any missing delta bases.  Storing the
 329        pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
 330        especially on slow filesystems.
 331
 332format.headers::
 333        Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
 334        by mail.  See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
 335
 336gc.packrefs::
 337        `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
 338        default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
 339        from the repository.  Setting this to `true` lets `git
 340        gc` to run `git pack-refs`.  Setting this to `false` tells
 341        `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
 342        `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
 343        support such clients.  The default setting will change to `true`
 344        at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
 345        prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
 346
 347gc.reflogexpire::
 348        `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
 349        this time; defaults to 90 days.
 350
 351gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
 352        `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
 353        this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
 354        defaults to 30 days.
 355
 356gc.rerereresolved::
 357        Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
 358        kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
 359        The default is 60 days.  See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
 360
 361gc.rerereunresolved::
 362        Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
 363        kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
 364        The default is 15 days.  See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
 365
 366gitcvs.enabled::
 367        Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository.
 368        See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 369
 370gitcvs.logfile::
 371        Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs
 372        various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 373
 374http.sslVerify::
 375        Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 376        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
 377        variable.
 378
 379http.sslCert::
 380        File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 381        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
 382        variable.
 383
 384http.sslKey::
 385        File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
 386        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
 387        variable.
 388
 389http.sslCAInfo::
 390        File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
 391        fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
 392        'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
 393
 394http.sslCAPath::
 395        Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
 396        with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
 397        by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
 398
 399http.maxRequests::
 400        How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
 401        by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
 402
 403http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
 404        If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
 405        for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
 406        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
 407        'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
 408
 409http.noEPSV::
 410        A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
 411        This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't
 412        support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
 413        environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
 414
 415i18n.commitEncoding::
 416        Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
 417        does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
 418        importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
 419        browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
 420        porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
 421
 422i18n.logOutputEncoding::
 423        Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
 424        running `git-log` and friends.
 425
 426log.showroot::
 427        If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
 428        This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
 429        Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
 430        normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
 431
 432merge.summary::
 433        Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
 434        merge commit messages. False by default.
 435
 436merge.verbosity::
 437        Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
 438        strategy.  Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
 439        message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
 440        conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes.  Level 5 and
 441        above outputs debugging information.  The default is level 2.
 442
 443pack.window::
 444        The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
 445        window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
 446
 447pull.octopus::
 448        The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
 449        at once.
 450
 451pull.twohead::
 452        The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
 453
 454remote.<name>.url::
 455        The URL of a remote repository.  See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
 456        gitlink:git-push[1].
 457
 458remote.<name>.fetch::
 459        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
 460        gitlink:git-fetch[1].
 461
 462remote.<name>.push::
 463        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
 464        gitlink:git-push[1].
 465
 466remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
 467        If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
 468        using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].
 469
 470remote.<name>.receivepack::
 471        The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing.  See
 472        option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
 473
 474remote.<name>.uploadpack::
 475        The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching.  See
 476        option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
 477
 478remotes.<group>::
 479        The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
 480        <group>".  See gitlink:git-remote[1].
 481
 482repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
 483        Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
 484        delta-base offset.  Defaults to false.
 485
 486show.difftree::
 487        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 488        for gitlink:git-show[1].
 489
 490showbranch.default::
 491        The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 492        See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 493
 494tar.umask::
 495        By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
 496        to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
 497        such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
 498        With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
 499        gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
 500        The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
 501        be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
 502        the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
 503        value remains 0, which means world read-write.
 504
 505user.email::
 506        Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 507        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
 508        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 509
 510user.name::
 511        Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 512        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
 513        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 514
 515user.signingkey::
 516        If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
 517        automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
 518        default selection with this variable.  This option is passed
 519        unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
 520        using any method that gpg supports.
 521
 522whatchanged.difftree::
 523        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 524        for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
 525
 526imap::
 527        The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
 528        in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
 529
 530receive.unpackLimit::
 531        If the number of objects received in a push is below this
 532        limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
 533        files. However if the number of received objects equals or
 534        exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
 535        a pack, after adding any missing delta bases.  Storing the
 536        pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
 537        especially on slow filesystems.
 538
 539receive.denyNonFastForwards::
 540        If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
 541        not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
 542        even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
 543        set when initializing a shared repository.
 544
 545transfer.unpackLimit::
 546        When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
 547        not set, the value of this variable is used instead.
 548
 549