1CONFIGURATION FILE 2------------------ 3 4The git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect 5the git command's behavior. `.git/config` file for each repository 6is used to store the information for that repository, and 7`$HOME/.gitconfig` is used to store per user information to give 8fallback values for `.git/config` file. The file `/etc/gitconfig` 9can be used to store system-wide defaults. 10 11They can be used by both the git plumbing 12and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where 13in the fully qualified variable name the variable itself is the last 14dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last 15dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric 16characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times. 17 18Syntax 19~~~~~~ 20 21The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly 22ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line, 23blank lines are ignored. 24 25The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with 26the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next 27section begins. Section names are not case sensitive. Only alphanumeric 28characters, '`-`' and '`.`' are allowed in section names. Each variable 29must belong to some section, which means that there must be section 30header before first setting of a variable. 31 32Sections can be further divided into subsections. To begin a subsection 33put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name, 34in the section header, like in example below: 35 36-------- 37 [section "subsection"] 38 39-------- 40 41Subsection names can contain any characters except newline (doublequote 42'`"`' and backslash have to be escaped as '`\"`' and '`\\`', 43respectively) and are case sensitive. Section header cannot span multiple 44lines. Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection. 45You can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you 46don't need to. 47 48There is also (case insensitive) alternative `[section.subsection]` syntax. 49In this syntax subsection names follow the same restrictions as for section 50name. 51 52All the other lines are recognized as setting variables, in the form 53'name = value'. If there is no equal sign on the line, the entire line 54is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true". 55The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric 56characters and '`-`' are allowed. There can be more than one value 57for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued. 58 59Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded. 60Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim. 61 62The values following the equals sign in variable assign are all either 63a string, an integer, or a boolean. Boolean values may be given as yes/no, 640/1 or true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, when 65converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type specifier; 66`git-config` will ensure that the output is "true" or "false". 67 68String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes. 69You need to enclose variable value in double quotes if you want to 70preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if variable value contains 71beginning of comment characters (if it contains '#' or ';'). 72Double quote '`"`' and backslash '`\`' characters in variable value must 73be escaped: use '`\"`' for '`"`' and '`\\`' for '`\`'. 74 75The following escape sequences (beside '`\"`' and '`\\`') are recognized: 76'`\n`' for newline character (NL), '`\t`' for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB) 77and '`\b`' for backspace (BS). No other char escape sequence, nor octal 78char sequences are valid. 79 80Variable value ending in a '`\`' is continued on the next line in the 81customary UNIX fashion. 82 83Some variables may require special value format. 84 85Example 86~~~~~~~ 87 88 # Core variables 89 [core] 90 ; Don't trust file modes 91 filemode = false 92 93 # Our diff algorithm 94 [diff] 95 external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u" 96 renames = true 97 98 [branch "devel"] 99 remote = origin 100 merge = refs/heads/devel 101 102 # Proxy settings 103 [core] 104 gitProxy="ssh" for "ssh://kernel.org/" 105 gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest 106 107Variables 108~~~~~~~~~ 109 110Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete. 111For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description 112in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core 113porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation. 114 115core.fileMode:: 116 If false, the executable bit differences between the index and 117 the working copy are ignored; useful on broken filesystems like FAT. 118 See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. True by default. 119 120core.autocrlf:: 121 If true, makes git convert `CRLF` at the end of lines in text files to 122 `LF` when reading from the filesystem, and convert in reverse when 123 writing to the filesystem. The variable can be set to 124 'input', in which case the conversion happens only while 125 reading from the filesystem but files are written out with 126 `LF` at the end of lines. Currently, which paths to consider 127 "text" (i.e. be subjected to the autocrlf mechanism) is 128 decided purely based on the contents. 129 130core.symlinks:: 131 If false, symbolic links are checked out as small plain files that 132 contain the link text. gitlink:git-update-index[1] and 133 gitlink:git-add[1] will not change the recorded type to regular 134 file. Useful on filesystems like FAT that do not support 135 symbolic links. True by default. 136 137core.gitProxy:: 138 A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead 139 of establishing direct connection to the remote server when 140 using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is 141 in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only 142 on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable 143 may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order; 144 the first match wins. 145+ 146Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable 147(which always applies universally, without the special "for" 148handling). 149 150core.ignoreStat:: 151 The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you 152 mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes 153 by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very 154 slow, such as Microsoft Windows. See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. 155 False by default. 156 157core.preferSymlinkRefs:: 158 Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD 159 and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links. 160 This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that 161 expect HEAD to be a symbolic link. 162 163core.bare:: 164 If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no 165 working directory associated with it. If this is the case a 166 number of commands that require a working directory will be 167 disabled, such as gitlink:git-add[1] or gitlink:git-merge[1]. 168+ 169This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or 170gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created. By default a 171repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare = 172false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare 173= true). 174 175core.logAllRefUpdates:: 176 Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file 177 "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old 178 SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but 179 only when the file exists. If this configuration 180 variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>" 181 file is automatically created for branch heads. 182+ 183This information can be used to determine what commit 184was the tip of a branch "2 days ago". 185+ 186This value is true by default in a repository that has 187a working directory associated with it, and false by 188default in a bare repository. 189 190core.repositoryFormatVersion:: 191 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout 192 version. 193 194core.sharedRepository:: 195 When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between 196 several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are 197 group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the 198 repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being 199 group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions 200 reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default. 201 202core.warnAmbiguousRefs:: 203 If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous 204 and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default. 205 206core.compression:: 207 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that 208 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no 209 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being 210 slowest. 211 212core.legacyheaders:: 213 A boolean which 214 changes the format of loose objects so that they are more 215 efficient to pack and to send out of the repository over git 216 native protocol, since v1.4.2. However, loose objects 217 written in the new format cannot be read by git older than 218 that version; people fetching from your repository using 219 older versions of git over dumb transports (e.g. http) 220 will also be affected. 221+ 222To let git use the new loose object format, you have to 223set core.legacyheaders to false. 224 225core.packedGitWindowSize:: 226 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a 227 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow 228 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files 229 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect 230 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's 231 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing 232 a large number of large pack files. 233+ 234Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32 235MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should 236be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do 237not need to adjust this value. 238+ 239Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 240 241core.packedGitLimit:: 242 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory 243 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many 244 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing 245 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process. 246+ 247Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms. 248This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on 249the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value. 250+ 251Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 252 253core.deltaBaseCacheLimit:: 254 Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects 255 that multiple deltafied objects reference. By storing the 256 entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able 257 to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base 258 objects multiple times. 259+ 260Default is 16 MiB on all platforms. This should be reasonable 261for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects. 262You probably do not need to adjust this value. 263+ 264Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported. 265 266alias.*:: 267 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g. 268 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation 269 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid 270 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that 271 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by 272 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported. 273 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them. 274 275 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point, 276 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining 277 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation 278 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command 279 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD". 280 281apply.whitespace:: 282 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way 283 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1]. 284 285branch.<name>.remote:: 286 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch. 287 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin". 288 289branch.<name>.merge:: 290 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to 291 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match 292 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote 293 given by "branch.<name>.remote". 294 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls 295 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without 296 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched. 297 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge. 298 If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from 299 another branch in the local repository, you can point 300 branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting 301 `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote. 302 303color.branch:: 304 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of 305 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), 306 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used 307 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. 308 309color.branch.<slot>:: 310 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of 311 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch), 312 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other 313 refs). 314+ 315The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most 316two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors 317accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`, 318`magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`, 319`blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the 320second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any, 321doesn't matter. 322 323color.diff:: 324 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch. 325 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use 326 colors only when the output is to the terminal. 327 328color.diff.<slot>:: 329 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies 330 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one 331 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag` 332 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines), 333 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious 334 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as 335 in color.branch.<slot>. 336 337color.pager:: 338 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in 339 use (default is true). 340 341color.status:: 342 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of 343 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), 344 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used 345 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. 346 347color.status.<slot>:: 348 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is 349 one of `header` (the header text of the status message), 350 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed), 351 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index), 352 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of 353 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>. 354 355diff.renameLimit:: 356 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename 357 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'. 358 359diff.renames:: 360 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it 361 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or 362 "copy", it will detect copies, as well. 363 364fetch.unpackLimit:: 365 If the number of objects fetched over the git native 366 transfer is below this 367 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object 368 files. However if the number of received objects equals or 369 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as 370 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the 371 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, 372 especially on slow filesystems. 373 374format.headers:: 375 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted 376 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1]. 377 378format.suffix:: 379 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix 380 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to 381 include the dot if you want it). 382 383gc.packrefs:: 384 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by 385 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch 386 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git 387 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells 388 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is 389 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to 390 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true` 391 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to 392 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`. 393 394gc.reflogexpire:: 395 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 396 this time; defaults to 90 days. 397 398gc.reflogexpireunreachable:: 399 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 400 this time and are not reachable from the current tip; 401 defaults to 30 days. 402 403gc.rerereresolved:: 404 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are 405 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 406 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 407 408gc.rerereunresolved:: 409 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are 410 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 411 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 412 413gitcvs.enabled:: 414 Whether the cvs server interface is enabled for this repository. 415 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 416 417gitcvs.logfile:: 418 Path to a log file where the cvs server interface well... logs 419 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 420 421gitcvs.allbinary:: 422 If true, all files are sent to the client in mode '-kb'. This 423 causes the client to treat all files as binary files which suppresses 424 any newline munging it otherwise might do. A work-around for the 425 fact that there is no way yet to set single files to mode '-kb'. 426 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 427 428http.sslVerify:: 429 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 430 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment 431 variable. 432 433http.sslCert:: 434 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 435 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment 436 variable. 437 438http.sslKey:: 439 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing 440 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment 441 variable. 442 443http.sslCAInfo:: 444 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when 445 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 446 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable. 447 448http.sslCAPath:: 449 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer 450 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden 451 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable. 452 453http.maxRequests:: 454 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden 455 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5. 456 457http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime:: 458 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit' 459 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted. 460 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and 461 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables. 462 463http.noEPSV:: 464 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl. 465 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which don't 466 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV' 467 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV). 468 469i18n.commitEncoding:: 470 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself 471 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when 472 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history 473 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other 474 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'. 475 476i18n.logOutputEncoding:: 477 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when 478 running `git-log` and friends. 479 480log.showroot:: 481 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event. 482 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree. 483 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which 484 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default. 485 486merge.summary:: 487 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created 488 merge commit messages. False by default. 489 490merge.tool:: 491 Controls which merge resolution program is used by 492 gitlink:git-mergetool[l]. Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff", 493 "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff" 494 495merge.verbosity:: 496 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge 497 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error 498 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only 499 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and 500 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2. 501 502pack.window:: 503 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no 504 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10. 505 506pull.octopus:: 507 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches 508 at once. 509 510pull.twohead:: 511 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch. 512 513remote.<name>.url:: 514 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or 515 gitlink:git-push[1]. 516 517remote.<name>.fetch:: 518 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See 519 gitlink:git-fetch[1]. 520 521remote.<name>.push:: 522 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See 523 gitlink:git-push[1]. 524 525remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate:: 526 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating 527 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1]. 528 529remote.<name>.receivepack:: 530 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See 531 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1]. 532 533remote.<name>.uploadpack:: 534 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See 535 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]. 536 537remote.<name>.tagopt:: 538 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching 539 from remote <name> 540 541remotes.<group>:: 542 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update 543 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1]. 544 545repack.usedeltabaseoffset:: 546 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses 547 delta-base offset. Defaults to false. 548 549show.difftree:: 550 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 551 for gitlink:git-show[1]. 552 553showbranch.default:: 554 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 555 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 556 557tar.umask:: 558 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes 559 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects 560 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects. 561 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell 562 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above. 563 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will 564 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to 565 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default 566 value remains 0, which means world read-write. 567 568user.email:: 569 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits. 570 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL' 571 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 572 573user.name:: 574 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits. 575 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME' 576 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 577 578user.signingkey:: 579 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to 580 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the 581 default selection with this variable. This option is passed 582 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key 583 using any method that gpg supports. 584 585whatchanged.difftree:: 586 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 587 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1]. 588 589imap:: 590 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described 591 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1]. 592 593receive.unpackLimit:: 594 If the number of objects received in a push is below this 595 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object 596 files. However if the number of received objects equals or 597 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as 598 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the 599 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, 600 especially on slow filesystems. 601 602receive.denyNonFastForwards:: 603 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is 604 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push, 605 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is 606 set when initializing a shared repository. 607 608transfer.unpackLimit:: 609 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are 610 not set, the value of this variable is used instead. 611 612