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