1CONFIGURATION FILE 2------------------ 3 4The git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect 5the git command's behavior. `.git/config` file for each repository 6is used to store the information for that repository, and 7`$HOME/.gitconfig` is used to store per user information to give 8fallback values for `.git/config` file. 9 10They can be used by both the git plumbing 11and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where 12in the fully qualified variable name the variable itself is the last 13dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last 14dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric 15characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times. 16 17Syntax 18~~~~~~ 19 20The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly 21ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line, 22blank lines are ignored. 23 24The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with 25the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next 26section begins. Section names are not case sensitive. Only alphanumeric 27characters, '`-`' and '`.`' are allowed in section names. Each variable 28must belong to some section, which means that there must be section 29header before first setting of a variable. 30 31Sections can be further divided into subsections. To begin a subsection 32put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name, 33in the section header, like in example below: 34 35-------- 36 [section "subsection"] 37 38-------- 39 40Subsection names can contain any characters except newline (doublequote 41'`"`' and backslash have to be escaped as '`\"`' and '`\\`', 42respectively) and are case sensitive. Section header cannot span multiple 43lines. Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection. 44You can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you 45don't need to. 46 47There is also (case insensitive) alternative `[section.subsection]` syntax. 48In this syntax subsection names follow the same restrictions as for section 49name. 50 51All the other lines are recognized as setting variables, in the form 52'name = value'. If there is no equal sign on the line, the entire line 53is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true". 54The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric 55characters and '`-`' are allowed. There can be more than one value 56for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued. 57 58Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded. 59Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim. 60 61The values following the equals sign in variable assign are all either 62a string, an integer, or a boolean. Boolean values may be given as yes/no, 630/1 or true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, when 64converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type specifier; 65`git-config` will ensure that the output is "true" or "false". 66 67String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes. 68You need to enclose variable value in double quotes if you want to 69preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if variable value contains 70beginning of comment characters (if it contains '#' or ';'). 71Double quote '`"`' and backslash '`\`' characters in variable value must 72be escaped: use '`\"`' for '`"`' and '`\\`' for '`\`'. 73 74The following escape sequences (beside '`\"`' and '`\\`') are recognized: 75'`\n`' for newline character (NL), '`\t`' for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB) 76and '`\b`' for backspace (BS). No other char escape sequence, nor octal 77char sequences are valid. 78 79Variable value ending in a '`\`' is continued on the next line in the 80customary UNIX fashion. 81 82Some variables may require special value format. 83 84Example 85~~~~~~~ 86 87 # Core variables 88 [core] 89 ; Don't trust file modes 90 filemode = false 91 92 # Our diff algorithm 93 [diff] 94 external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u" 95 renames = true 96 97 [branch "devel"] 98 remote = origin 99 merge = refs/heads/devel 100 101 # Proxy settings 102 [core] 103 gitProxy="ssh" for "ssh://kernel.org/" 104 gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest 105 106Variables 107~~~~~~~~~ 108 109Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete. 110For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description 111in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core 112porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation. 113 114core.fileMode:: 115 If false, the executable bit differences between the index and 116 the working copy are ignored; useful on broken filesystems like FAT. 117 See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. True by default. 118 119core.gitProxy:: 120 A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead 121 of establishing direct connection to the remote server when 122 using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is 123 in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only 124 on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable 125 may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order; 126 the first match wins. 127+ 128Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable 129(which always applies universally, without the special "for" 130handling). 131 132core.ignoreStat:: 133 The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you 134 mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes 135 by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very 136 slow, such as Microsoft Windows. See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. 137 False by default. 138 139core.preferSymlinkRefs:: 140 Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD 141 and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links. 142 This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that 143 expect HEAD to be a symbolic link. 144 145core.logAllRefUpdates:: 146 Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file 147 "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old 148 SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but 149 only when the file exists. If this configuration 150 variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>" 151 file is automatically created for branch heads. 152+ 153This information can be used to determine what commit 154was the tip of a branch "2 days ago". 155+ 156This value is true by default in a repository that has 157a working directory associated with it, and false by 158default in a bare repository. 159 160core.repositoryFormatVersion:: 161 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout 162 version. 163 164core.sharedRepository:: 165 When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between 166 several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are 167 group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the 168 repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being 169 group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions 170 reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default. 171 172core.warnAmbiguousRefs:: 173 If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous 174 and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default. 175 176core.compression:: 177 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that 178 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no 179 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being 180 slowest. 181 182core.legacyheaders:: 183 A boolean which enables the legacy object header format in case 184 you want to interoperate with old clients accessing the object 185 database directly (where the "http://" and "rsync://" protocols 186 count as direct access). 187 188core.packedGitWindowSize:: 189 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a 190 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow 191 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files 192 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect 193 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's 194 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing 195 a large number of large pack files. 196+ 197Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32 198MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should 199be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do 200not need to adjust this value. 201+ 202Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 203 204core.packedGitLimit:: 205 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory 206 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many 207 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing 208 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process. 209+ 210Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms. 211This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on 212the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value. 213+ 214Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 215 216alias.*:: 217 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g. 218 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation 219 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid 220 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that 221 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by 222 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported. 223 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them. 224 225 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point, 226 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining 227 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation 228 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command 229 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD". 230 231apply.whitespace:: 232 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way 233 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1]. 234 235branch.<name>.remote:: 236 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch. 237 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin". 238 239branch.<name>.merge:: 240 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to 241 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match 242 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote 243 given by "branch.<name>.remote". 244 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls 245 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without 246 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched. 247 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge. 248 249color.branch:: 250 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of 251 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), 252 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used 253 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. 254 255color.branch.<slot>:: 256 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of 257 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch), 258 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other 259 refs). 260+ 261The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most 262two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors 263accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`, 264`magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`, 265`blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the 266second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any, 267doesn't matter. 268 269color.diff:: 270 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch. 271 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use 272 colors only when the output is to the terminal. 273 274color.diff.<slot>:: 275 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies 276 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one 277 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag` 278 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines), 279 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious 280 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as 281 in color.branch.<slot>. 282 283color.pager:: 284 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in 285 use (default is true). 286 287color.status:: 288 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of 289 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), 290 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used 291 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. 292 293color.status.<slot>:: 294 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is 295 one of `header` (the header text of the status message), 296 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed), 297 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index), 298 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of 299 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>. 300 301diff.renameLimit:: 302 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename 303 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'. 304 305diff.renames:: 306 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it 307 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or 308 "copy", it will detect copies, as well. 309 310fetch.unpackLimit:: 311 If the number of objects fetched over the git native 312 transfer is below this 313 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object 314 files. However if the number of received objects equals or 315 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as 316 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the 317 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, 318 especially on slow filesystems. 319 320format.headers:: 321 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted 322 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1]. 323 324gc.packrefs:: 325 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by 326 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch 327 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git 328 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells 329 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is 330 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to 331 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true` 332 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to 333 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`. 334 335gc.reflogexpire:: 336 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 337 this time; defaults to 90 days. 338 339gc.reflogexpireunreachable:: 340 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 341 this time and are not reachable from the current tip; 342 defaults to 30 days. 343 344gc.rerereresolved:: 345 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are 346 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 347 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 348 349gc.rerereunresolved:: 350 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are 351 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 352 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 353 354gitcvs.enabled:: 355 Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository. 356 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 357 358gitcvs.logfile:: 359 Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs 360 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 361 362http.sslVerify:: 363 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 364 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment 365 variable. 366 367http.sslCert:: 368 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 369 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment 370 variable. 371 372http.sslKey:: 373 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing 374 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment 375 variable. 376 377http.sslCAInfo:: 378 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when 379 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 380 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable. 381 382http.sslCAPath:: 383 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer 384 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden 385 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable. 386 387http.maxRequests:: 388 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden 389 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5. 390 391http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime:: 392 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit' 393 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted. 394 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and 395 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables. 396 397http.noEPSV:: 398 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl. 399 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't 400 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV' 401 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV). 402 403i18n.commitEncoding:: 404 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself 405 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when 406 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history 407 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other 408 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'. 409 410i18n.logOutputEncoding:: 411 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when 412 running `git-log` and friends. 413 414log.showroot:: 415 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event. 416 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree. 417 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which 418 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default. 419 420merge.summary:: 421 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created 422 merge commit messages. False by default. 423 424merge.verbosity:: 425 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge 426 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error 427 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only 428 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and 429 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2. 430 431pack.window:: 432 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no 433 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10. 434 435pull.octopus:: 436 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches 437 at once. 438 439pull.twohead:: 440 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch. 441 442remote.<name>.url:: 443 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or 444 gitlink:git-push[1]. 445 446remote.<name>.fetch:: 447 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See 448 gitlink:git-fetch[1]. 449 450remote.<name>.push:: 451 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See 452 gitlink:git-push[1]. 453 454remote.<name>.receivepack:: 455 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See 456 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1]. 457 458remote.<name>.uploadpack:: 459 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See 460 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]. 461 462repack.usedeltabaseoffset:: 463 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses 464 delta-base offset. Defaults to false. 465 466show.difftree:: 467 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 468 for gitlink:git-show[1]. 469 470showbranch.default:: 471 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 472 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 473 474tar.umask:: 475 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes 476 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects 477 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects. 478 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell 479 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above. 480 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will 481 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to 482 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default 483 value remains 0, which means world read-write. 484 485user.email:: 486 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits. 487 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL' 488 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 489 490user.name:: 491 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits. 492 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME' 493 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 494 495user.signingkey:: 496 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to 497 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the 498 default selection with this variable. This option is passed 499 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key 500 using any method that gpg supports. 501 502whatchanged.difftree:: 503 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 504 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1]. 505 506imap:: 507 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described 508 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1]. 509 510receive.unpackLimit:: 511 If the number of objects received in a push is below this 512 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object 513 files. However if the number of received objects equals or 514 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as 515 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the 516 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, 517 especially on slow filesystems. 518 519receive.denyNonFastForwards:: 520 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is 521 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push, 522 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is 523 set when initializing a shared repository. 524 525transfer.unpackLimit:: 526 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are 527 not set, the value of this variable is used instead. 528 529