Documentation / config / core.txton commit Merge branch 'en/merge-options-ff-and-friends' (9bc67b6)
   1core.fileMode::
   2        Tells Git if the executable bit of files in the working tree
   3        is to be honored.
   4+
   5Some filesystems lose the executable bit when a file that is
   6marked as executable is checked out, or checks out a
   7non-executable file with executable bit on.
   8linkgit:git-clone[1] or linkgit:git-init[1] probe the filesystem
   9to see if it handles the executable bit correctly
  10and this variable is automatically set as necessary.
  11+
  12A repository, however, may be on a filesystem that handles
  13the filemode correctly, and this variable is set to 'true'
  14when created, but later may be made accessible from another
  15environment that loses the filemode (e.g. exporting ext4 via
  16CIFS mount, visiting a Cygwin created repository with
  17Git for Windows or Eclipse).
  18In such a case it may be necessary to set this variable to 'false'.
  19See linkgit:git-update-index[1].
  20+
  21The default is true (when core.filemode is not specified in the config file).
  22
  23core.hideDotFiles::
  24        (Windows-only) If true, mark newly-created directories and files whose
  25        name starts with a dot as hidden.  If 'dotGitOnly', only the `.git/`
  26        directory is hidden, but no other files starting with a dot.  The
  27        default mode is 'dotGitOnly'.
  28
  29core.ignoreCase::
  30        Internal variable which enables various workarounds to enable
  31        Git to work better on filesystems that are not case sensitive,
  32        like APFS, HFS+, FAT, NTFS, etc. For example, if a directory listing
  33        finds "makefile" when Git expects "Makefile", Git will assume
  34        it is really the same file, and continue to remember it as
  35        "Makefile".
  36+
  37The default is false, except linkgit:git-clone[1] or linkgit:git-init[1]
  38will probe and set core.ignoreCase true if appropriate when the repository
  39is created.
  40+
  41Git relies on the proper configuration of this variable for your operating
  42and file system. Modifying this value may result in unexpected behavior.
  43
  44core.precomposeUnicode::
  45        This option is only used by Mac OS implementation of Git.
  46        When core.precomposeUnicode=true, Git reverts the unicode decomposition
  47        of filenames done by Mac OS. This is useful when sharing a repository
  48        between Mac OS and Linux or Windows.
  49        (Git for Windows 1.7.10 or higher is needed, or Git under cygwin 1.7).
  50        When false, file names are handled fully transparent by Git,
  51        which is backward compatible with older versions of Git.
  52
  53core.protectHFS::
  54        If set to true, do not allow checkout of paths that would
  55        be considered equivalent to `.git` on an HFS+ filesystem.
  56        Defaults to `true` on Mac OS, and `false` elsewhere.
  57
  58core.protectNTFS::
  59        If set to true, do not allow checkout of paths that would
  60        cause problems with the NTFS filesystem, e.g. conflict with
  61        8.3 "short" names.
  62        Defaults to `true` on Windows, and `false` elsewhere.
  63
  64core.fsmonitor::
  65        If set, the value of this variable is used as a command which
  66        will identify all files that may have changed since the
  67        requested date/time. This information is used to speed up git by
  68        avoiding unnecessary processing of files that have not changed.
  69        See the "fsmonitor-watchman" section of linkgit:githooks[5].
  70
  71core.trustctime::
  72        If false, the ctime differences between the index and the
  73        working tree are ignored; useful when the inode change time
  74        is regularly modified by something outside Git (file system
  75        crawlers and some backup systems).
  76        See linkgit:git-update-index[1]. True by default.
  77
  78core.splitIndex::
  79        If true, the split-index feature of the index will be used.
  80        See linkgit:git-update-index[1]. False by default.
  81
  82core.untrackedCache::
  83        Determines what to do about the untracked cache feature of the
  84        index. It will be kept, if this variable is unset or set to
  85        `keep`. It will automatically be added if set to `true`. And
  86        it will automatically be removed, if set to `false`. Before
  87        setting it to `true`, you should check that mtime is working
  88        properly on your system.
  89        See linkgit:git-update-index[1]. `keep` by default, unless
  90        `feature.manyFiles` is enabled which sets this setting to
  91        `true` by default.
  92
  93core.checkStat::
  94        When missing or is set to `default`, many fields in the stat
  95        structure are checked to detect if a file has been modified
  96        since Git looked at it.  When this configuration variable is
  97        set to `minimal`, sub-second part of mtime and ctime, the
  98        uid and gid of the owner of the file, the inode number (and
  99        the device number, if Git was compiled to use it), are
 100        excluded from the check among these fields, leaving only the
 101        whole-second part of mtime (and ctime, if `core.trustCtime`
 102        is set) and the filesize to be checked.
 103+
 104There are implementations of Git that do not leave usable values in
 105some fields (e.g. JGit); by excluding these fields from the
 106comparison, the `minimal` mode may help interoperability when the
 107same repository is used by these other systems at the same time.
 108
 109core.quotePath::
 110        Commands that output paths (e.g. 'ls-files', 'diff'), will
 111        quote "unusual" characters in the pathname by enclosing the
 112        pathname in double-quotes and escaping those characters with
 113        backslashes in the same way C escapes control characters (e.g.
 114        `\t` for TAB, `\n` for LF, `\\` for backslash) or bytes with
 115        values larger than 0x80 (e.g. octal `\302\265` for "micro" in
 116        UTF-8).  If this variable is set to false, bytes higher than
 117        0x80 are not considered "unusual" any more. Double-quotes,
 118        backslash and control characters are always escaped regardless
 119        of the setting of this variable.  A simple space character is
 120        not considered "unusual".  Many commands can output pathnames
 121        completely verbatim using the `-z` option. The default value
 122        is true.
 123
 124core.eol::
 125        Sets the line ending type to use in the working directory for
 126        files that are marked as text (either by having the `text`
 127        attribute set, or by having `text=auto` and Git auto-detecting
 128        the contents as text).
 129        Alternatives are 'lf', 'crlf' and 'native', which uses the platform's
 130        native line ending.  The default value is `native`.  See
 131        linkgit:gitattributes[5] for more information on end-of-line
 132        conversion. Note that this value is ignored if `core.autocrlf`
 133        is set to `true` or `input`.
 134
 135core.safecrlf::
 136        If true, makes Git check if converting `CRLF` is reversible when
 137        end-of-line conversion is active.  Git will verify if a command
 138        modifies a file in the work tree either directly or indirectly.
 139        For example, committing a file followed by checking out the
 140        same file should yield the original file in the work tree.  If
 141        this is not the case for the current setting of
 142        `core.autocrlf`, Git will reject the file.  The variable can
 143        be set to "warn", in which case Git will only warn about an
 144        irreversible conversion but continue the operation.
 145+
 146CRLF conversion bears a slight chance of corrupting data.
 147When it is enabled, Git will convert CRLF to LF during commit and LF to
 148CRLF during checkout.  A file that contains a mixture of LF and
 149CRLF before the commit cannot be recreated by Git.  For text
 150files this is the right thing to do: it corrects line endings
 151such that we have only LF line endings in the repository.
 152But for binary files that are accidentally classified as text the
 153conversion can corrupt data.
 154+
 155If you recognize such corruption early you can easily fix it by
 156setting the conversion type explicitly in .gitattributes.  Right
 157after committing you still have the original file in your work
 158tree and this file is not yet corrupted.  You can explicitly tell
 159Git that this file is binary and Git will handle the file
 160appropriately.
 161+
 162Unfortunately, the desired effect of cleaning up text files with
 163mixed line endings and the undesired effect of corrupting binary
 164files cannot be distinguished.  In both cases CRLFs are removed
 165in an irreversible way.  For text files this is the right thing
 166to do because CRLFs are line endings, while for binary files
 167converting CRLFs corrupts data.
 168+
 169Note, this safety check does not mean that a checkout will generate a
 170file identical to the original file for a different setting of
 171`core.eol` and `core.autocrlf`, but only for the current one.  For
 172example, a text file with `LF` would be accepted with `core.eol=lf`
 173and could later be checked out with `core.eol=crlf`, in which case the
 174resulting file would contain `CRLF`, although the original file
 175contained `LF`.  However, in both work trees the line endings would be
 176consistent, that is either all `LF` or all `CRLF`, but never mixed.  A
 177file with mixed line endings would be reported by the `core.safecrlf`
 178mechanism.
 179
 180core.autocrlf::
 181        Setting this variable to "true" is the same as setting
 182        the `text` attribute to "auto" on all files and core.eol to "crlf".
 183        Set to true if you want to have `CRLF` line endings in your
 184        working directory and the repository has LF line endings.
 185        This variable can be set to 'input',
 186        in which case no output conversion is performed.
 187
 188core.checkRoundtripEncoding::
 189        A comma and/or whitespace separated list of encodings that Git
 190        performs UTF-8 round trip checks on if they are used in an
 191        `working-tree-encoding` attribute (see linkgit:gitattributes[5]).
 192        The default value is `SHIFT-JIS`.
 193
 194core.symlinks::
 195        If false, symbolic links are checked out as small plain files that
 196        contain the link text. linkgit:git-update-index[1] and
 197        linkgit:git-add[1] will not change the recorded type to regular
 198        file. Useful on filesystems like FAT that do not support
 199        symbolic links.
 200+
 201The default is true, except linkgit:git-clone[1] or linkgit:git-init[1]
 202will probe and set core.symlinks false if appropriate when the repository
 203is created.
 204
 205core.gitProxy::
 206        A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead
 207        of establishing direct connection to the remote server when
 208        using the Git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is
 209        in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only
 210        on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable
 211        may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order;
 212        the first match wins.
 213+
 214Can be overridden by the `GIT_PROXY_COMMAND` environment variable
 215(which always applies universally, without the special "for"
 216handling).
 217+
 218The special string `none` can be used as the proxy command to
 219specify that no proxy be used for a given domain pattern.
 220This is useful for excluding servers inside a firewall from
 221proxy use, while defaulting to a common proxy for external domains.
 222
 223core.sshCommand::
 224        If this variable is set, `git fetch` and `git push` will
 225        use the specified command instead of `ssh` when they need to
 226        connect to a remote system. The command is in the same form as
 227        the `GIT_SSH_COMMAND` environment variable and is overridden
 228        when the environment variable is set.
 229
 230core.ignoreStat::
 231        If true, Git will avoid using lstat() calls to detect if files have
 232        changed by setting the "assume-unchanged" bit for those tracked files
 233        which it has updated identically in both the index and working tree.
 234+
 235When files are modified outside of Git, the user will need to stage
 236the modified files explicitly (e.g. see 'Examples' section in
 237linkgit:git-update-index[1]).
 238Git will not normally detect changes to those files.
 239+
 240This is useful on systems where lstat() calls are very slow, such as
 241CIFS/Microsoft Windows.
 242+
 243False by default.
 244
 245core.preferSymlinkRefs::
 246        Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD
 247        and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
 248        This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
 249        expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
 250
 251core.alternateRefsCommand::
 252        When advertising tips of available history from an alternate, use the shell to
 253        execute the specified command instead of linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1]. The
 254        first argument is the absolute path of the alternate. Output must contain one
 255        hex object id per line (i.e., the same as produced by `git for-each-ref
 256        --format='%(objectname)'`).
 257+
 258Note that you cannot generally put `git for-each-ref` directly into the config
 259value, as it does not take a repository path as an argument (but you can wrap
 260the command above in a shell script).
 261
 262core.alternateRefsPrefixes::
 263        When listing references from an alternate, list only references that begin
 264        with the given prefix. Prefixes match as if they were given as arguments to
 265        linkgit:git-for-each-ref[1]. To list multiple prefixes, separate them with
 266        whitespace. If `core.alternateRefsCommand` is set, setting
 267        `core.alternateRefsPrefixes` has no effect.
 268
 269core.bare::
 270        If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no
 271        working directory associated with it.  If this is the case a
 272        number of commands that require a working directory will be
 273        disabled, such as linkgit:git-add[1] or linkgit:git-merge[1].
 274+
 275This setting is automatically guessed by linkgit:git-clone[1] or
 276linkgit:git-init[1] when the repository was created.  By default a
 277repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare =
 278false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare
 279= true).
 280
 281core.worktree::
 282        Set the path to the root of the working tree.
 283        If `GIT_COMMON_DIR` environment variable is set, core.worktree
 284        is ignored and not used for determining the root of working tree.
 285        This can be overridden by the `GIT_WORK_TREE` environment
 286        variable and the `--work-tree` command-line option.
 287        The value can be an absolute path or relative to the path to
 288        the .git directory, which is either specified by --git-dir
 289        or GIT_DIR, or automatically discovered.
 290        If --git-dir or GIT_DIR is specified but none of
 291        --work-tree, GIT_WORK_TREE and core.worktree is specified,
 292        the current working directory is regarded as the top level
 293        of your working tree.
 294+
 295Note that this variable is honored even when set in a configuration
 296file in a ".git" subdirectory of a directory and its value differs
 297from the latter directory (e.g. "/path/to/.git/config" has
 298core.worktree set to "/different/path"), which is most likely a
 299misconfiguration.  Running Git commands in the "/path/to" directory will
 300still use "/different/path" as the root of the work tree and can cause
 301confusion unless you know what you are doing (e.g. you are creating a
 302read-only snapshot of the same index to a location different from the
 303repository's usual working tree).
 304
 305core.logAllRefUpdates::
 306        Enable the reflog. Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
 307        "`$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>`", by appending the new and old
 308        SHA-1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
 309        only when the file exists.  If this configuration
 310        variable is set to `true`, missing "`$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>`"
 311        file is automatically created for branch heads (i.e. under
 312        `refs/heads/`), remote refs (i.e. under `refs/remotes/`),
 313        note refs (i.e. under `refs/notes/`), and the symbolic ref `HEAD`.
 314        If it is set to `always`, then a missing reflog is automatically
 315        created for any ref under `refs/`.
 316+
 317This information can be used to determine what commit
 318was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
 319+
 320This value is true by default in a repository that has
 321a working directory associated with it, and false by
 322default in a bare repository.
 323
 324core.repositoryFormatVersion::
 325        Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
 326        version.
 327
 328core.sharedRepository::
 329        When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
 330        several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
 331        group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
 332        repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
 333        group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), Git will use permissions
 334        reported by umask(2). When '0xxx', where '0xxx' is an octal number,
 335        files in the repository will have this mode value. '0xxx' will override
 336        user's umask value (whereas the other options will only override
 337        requested parts of the user's umask value). Examples: '0660' will make
 338        the repo read/write-able for the owner and group, but inaccessible to
 339        others (equivalent to 'group' unless umask is e.g. '0022'). '0640' is a
 340        repository that is group-readable but not group-writable.
 341        See linkgit:git-init[1]. False by default.
 342
 343core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
 344        If true, Git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
 345        and might match multiple refs in the repository. True by default.
 346
 347core.compression::
 348        An integer -1..9, indicating a default compression level.
 349        -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no compression,
 350        and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being slowest.
 351        If set, this provides a default to other compression variables,
 352        such as `core.looseCompression` and `pack.compression`.
 353
 354core.looseCompression::
 355        An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
 356        are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no
 357        compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
 358        slowest.  If not set,  defaults to core.compression.  If that is
 359        not set,  defaults to 1 (best speed).
 360
 361core.packedGitWindowSize::
 362        Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
 363        single mapping operation.  Larger window sizes may allow
 364        your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
 365        more quickly.  Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
 366        performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
 367        memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
 368        a large number of large pack files.
 369+
 370Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
 371MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms.  This should
 372be reasonable for all users/operating systems.  You probably do
 373not need to adjust this value.
 374+
 375Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 376
 377core.packedGitLimit::
 378        Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
 379        from pack files.  If Git needs to access more than this many
 380        bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
 381        regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
 382+
 383Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 32 TiB (effectively
 384unlimited) on 64 bit platforms.
 385This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
 386the largest projects.  You probably do not need to adjust this value.
 387+
 388Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 389
 390core.deltaBaseCacheLimit::
 391        Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects
 392        that may be referenced by multiple deltified objects.  By storing the
 393        entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able
 394        to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base
 395        objects multiple times.
 396+
 397Default is 96 MiB on all platforms.  This should be reasonable
 398for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects.
 399You probably do not need to adjust this value.
 400+
 401Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 402
 403core.bigFileThreshold::
 404        Files larger than this size are stored deflated, without
 405        attempting delta compression.  Storing large files without
 406        delta compression avoids excessive memory usage, at the
 407        slight expense of increased disk usage. Additionally files
 408        larger than this size are always treated as binary.
 409+
 410Default is 512 MiB on all platforms.  This should be reasonable
 411for most projects as source code and other text files can still
 412be delta compressed, but larger binary media files won't be.
 413+
 414Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
 415
 416core.excludesFile::
 417        Specifies the pathname to the file that contains patterns to
 418        describe paths that are not meant to be tracked, in addition
 419        to `.gitignore` (per-directory) and `.git/info/exclude`.
 420        Defaults to `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore`.
 421        If `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME` is either not set or empty, `$HOME/.config/git/ignore`
 422        is used instead. See linkgit:gitignore[5].
 423
 424core.askPass::
 425        Some commands (e.g. svn and http interfaces) that interactively
 426        ask for a password can be told to use an external program given
 427        via the value of this variable. Can be overridden by the `GIT_ASKPASS`
 428        environment variable. If not set, fall back to the value of the
 429        `SSH_ASKPASS` environment variable or, failing that, a simple password
 430        prompt. The external program shall be given a suitable prompt as
 431        command-line argument and write the password on its STDOUT.
 432
 433core.attributesFile::
 434        In addition to `.gitattributes` (per-directory) and
 435        `.git/info/attributes`, Git looks into this file for attributes
 436        (see linkgit:gitattributes[5]). Path expansions are made the same
 437        way as for `core.excludesFile`. Its default value is
 438        `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/attributes`. If `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME` is either not
 439        set or empty, `$HOME/.config/git/attributes` is used instead.
 440
 441core.hooksPath::
 442        By default Git will look for your hooks in the
 443        `$GIT_DIR/hooks` directory. Set this to different path,
 444        e.g. `/etc/git/hooks`, and Git will try to find your hooks in
 445        that directory, e.g. `/etc/git/hooks/pre-receive` instead of
 446        in `$GIT_DIR/hooks/pre-receive`.
 447+
 448The path can be either absolute or relative. A relative path is
 449taken as relative to the directory where the hooks are run (see
 450the "DESCRIPTION" section of linkgit:githooks[5]).
 451+
 452This configuration variable is useful in cases where you'd like to
 453centrally configure your Git hooks instead of configuring them on a
 454per-repository basis, or as a more flexible and centralized
 455alternative to having an `init.templateDir` where you've changed
 456default hooks.
 457
 458core.editor::
 459        Commands such as `commit` and `tag` that let you edit
 460        messages by launching an editor use the value of this
 461        variable when it is set, and the environment variable
 462        `GIT_EDITOR` is not set.  See linkgit:git-var[1].
 463
 464core.commentChar::
 465        Commands such as `commit` and `tag` that let you edit
 466        messages consider a line that begins with this character
 467        commented, and removes them after the editor returns
 468        (default '#').
 469+
 470If set to "auto", `git-commit` would select a character that is not
 471the beginning character of any line in existing commit messages.
 472
 473core.filesRefLockTimeout::
 474        The length of time, in milliseconds, to retry when trying to
 475        lock an individual reference. Value 0 means not to retry at
 476        all; -1 means to try indefinitely. Default is 100 (i.e.,
 477        retry for 100ms).
 478
 479core.packedRefsTimeout::
 480        The length of time, in milliseconds, to retry when trying to
 481        lock the `packed-refs` file. Value 0 means not to retry at
 482        all; -1 means to try indefinitely. Default is 1000 (i.e.,
 483        retry for 1 second).
 484
 485core.pager::
 486        Text viewer for use by Git commands (e.g., 'less').  The value
 487        is meant to be interpreted by the shell.  The order of preference
 488        is the `$GIT_PAGER` environment variable, then `core.pager`
 489        configuration, then `$PAGER`, and then the default chosen at
 490        compile time (usually 'less').
 491+
 492When the `LESS` environment variable is unset, Git sets it to `FRX`
 493(if `LESS` environment variable is set, Git does not change it at
 494all).  If you want to selectively override Git's default setting
 495for `LESS`, you can set `core.pager` to e.g. `less -S`.  This will
 496be passed to the shell by Git, which will translate the final
 497command to `LESS=FRX less -S`. The environment does not set the
 498`S` option but the command line does, instructing less to truncate
 499long lines. Similarly, setting `core.pager` to `less -+F` will
 500deactivate the `F` option specified by the environment from the
 501command-line, deactivating the "quit if one screen" behavior of
 502`less`.  One can specifically activate some flags for particular
 503commands: for example, setting `pager.blame` to `less -S` enables
 504line truncation only for `git blame`.
 505+
 506Likewise, when the `LV` environment variable is unset, Git sets it
 507to `-c`.  You can override this setting by exporting `LV` with
 508another value or setting `core.pager` to `lv +c`.
 509
 510core.whitespace::
 511        A comma separated list of common whitespace problems to
 512        notice.  'git diff' will use `color.diff.whitespace` to
 513        highlight them, and 'git apply --whitespace=error' will
 514        consider them as errors.  You can prefix `-` to disable
 515        any of them (e.g. `-trailing-space`):
 516+
 517* `blank-at-eol` treats trailing whitespaces at the end of the line
 518  as an error (enabled by default).
 519* `space-before-tab` treats a space character that appears immediately
 520  before a tab character in the initial indent part of the line as an
 521  error (enabled by default).
 522* `indent-with-non-tab` treats a line that is indented with space
 523  characters instead of the equivalent tabs as an error (not enabled by
 524  default).
 525* `tab-in-indent` treats a tab character in the initial indent part of
 526  the line as an error (not enabled by default).
 527* `blank-at-eof` treats blank lines added at the end of file as an error
 528  (enabled by default).
 529* `trailing-space` is a short-hand to cover both `blank-at-eol` and
 530  `blank-at-eof`.
 531* `cr-at-eol` treats a carriage-return at the end of line as
 532  part of the line terminator, i.e. with it, `trailing-space`
 533  does not trigger if the character before such a carriage-return
 534  is not a whitespace (not enabled by default).
 535* `tabwidth=<n>` tells how many character positions a tab occupies; this
 536  is relevant for `indent-with-non-tab` and when Git fixes `tab-in-indent`
 537  errors. The default tab width is 8. Allowed values are 1 to 63.
 538
 539core.fsyncObjectFiles::
 540        This boolean will enable 'fsync()' when writing object files.
 541+
 542This is a total waste of time and effort on a filesystem that orders
 543data writes properly, but can be useful for filesystems that do not use
 544journalling (traditional UNIX filesystems) or that only journal metadata
 545and not file contents (OS X's HFS+, or Linux ext3 with "data=writeback").
 546
 547core.preloadIndex::
 548        Enable parallel index preload for operations like 'git diff'
 549+
 550This can speed up operations like 'git diff' and 'git status' especially
 551on filesystems like NFS that have weak caching semantics and thus
 552relatively high IO latencies.  When enabled, Git will do the
 553index comparison to the filesystem data in parallel, allowing
 554overlapping IO's.  Defaults to true.
 555
 556core.unsetenvvars::
 557        Windows-only: comma-separated list of environment variables'
 558        names that need to be unset before spawning any other process.
 559        Defaults to `PERL5LIB` to account for the fact that Git for
 560        Windows insists on using its own Perl interpreter.
 561
 562core.createObject::
 563        You can set this to 'link', in which case a hardlink followed by
 564        a delete of the source are used to make sure that object creation
 565        will not overwrite existing objects.
 566+
 567On some file system/operating system combinations, this is unreliable.
 568Set this config setting to 'rename' there; However, This will remove the
 569check that makes sure that existing object files will not get overwritten.
 570
 571core.notesRef::
 572        When showing commit messages, also show notes which are stored in
 573        the given ref.  The ref must be fully qualified.  If the given
 574        ref does not exist, it is not an error but means that no
 575        notes should be printed.
 576+
 577This setting defaults to "refs/notes/commits", and it can be overridden by
 578the `GIT_NOTES_REF` environment variable.  See linkgit:git-notes[1].
 579
 580core.commitGraph::
 581        If true, then git will read the commit-graph file (if it exists)
 582        to parse the graph structure of commits. Defaults to true. See
 583        linkgit:git-commit-graph[1] for more information.
 584
 585core.useReplaceRefs::
 586        If set to `false`, behave as if the `--no-replace-objects`
 587        option was given on the command line. See linkgit:git[1] and
 588        linkgit:git-replace[1] for more information.
 589
 590core.multiPackIndex::
 591        Use the multi-pack-index file to track multiple packfiles using a
 592        single index. See link:technical/multi-pack-index.html[the
 593        multi-pack-index design document].
 594
 595core.sparseCheckout::
 596        Enable "sparse checkout" feature. See section "Sparse checkout" in
 597        linkgit:git-read-tree[1] for more information.
 598
 599core.abbrev::
 600        Set the length object names are abbreviated to.  If
 601        unspecified or set to "auto", an appropriate value is
 602        computed based on the approximate number of packed objects
 603        in your repository, which hopefully is enough for
 604        abbreviated object names to stay unique for some time.
 605        The minimum length is 4.