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 '`\\`', 42respecitvely) 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 225apply.whitespace:: 226 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way 227 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1]. 228 229branch.<name>.remote:: 230 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch. 231 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin". 232 233branch.<name>.merge:: 234 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to 235 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match 236 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote 237 given by "branch.<name>.remote". 238 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls 239 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without 240 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched. 241 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge. 242 243color.branch:: 244 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of 245 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), 246 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used 247 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. 248 249color.branch.<slot>:: 250 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of 251 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch), 252 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other 253 refs). 254+ 255The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most 256two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors 257accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`, 258`magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`, 259`blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the 260second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any, 261doesn't matter. 262 263color.diff:: 264 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch. 265 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use 266 colors only when the output is to the terminal. 267 268color.diff.<slot>:: 269 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies 270 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one 271 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag` 272 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines), 273 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious 274 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as 275 in color.branch.<slot>. 276 277color.pager:: 278 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in 279 use (default is true). 280 281color.status:: 282 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of 283 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`), 284 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used 285 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false. 286 287color.status.<slot>:: 288 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is 289 one of `header` (the header text of the status message), 290 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed), 291 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index), 292 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of 293 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>. 294 295diff.renameLimit:: 296 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename 297 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'. 298 299diff.renames:: 300 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it 301 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or 302 "copy", it will detect copies, as well. 303 304fetch.unpackLimit:: 305 If the number of objects fetched over the git native 306 transfer is below this 307 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object 308 files. However if the number of received objects equals or 309 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as 310 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the 311 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, 312 especially on slow filesystems. 313 314format.headers:: 315 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted 316 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1]. 317 318gc.reflogexpire:: 319 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 320 this time; defaults to 90 days. 321 322gc.reflogexpireunreachable:: 323 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than 324 this time and are not reachable from the current tip; 325 defaults to 30 days. 326 327gc.rerereresolved:: 328 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are 329 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 330 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 331 332gc.rerereunresolved:: 333 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are 334 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run. 335 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1]. 336 337gitcvs.enabled:: 338 Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository. 339 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 340 341gitcvs.logfile:: 342 Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs 343 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1]. 344 345http.sslVerify:: 346 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 347 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment 348 variable. 349 350http.sslCert:: 351 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing 352 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment 353 variable. 354 355http.sslKey:: 356 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing 357 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment 358 variable. 359 360http.sslCAInfo:: 361 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when 362 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 363 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable. 364 365http.sslCAPath:: 366 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer 367 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden 368 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable. 369 370http.maxRequests:: 371 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden 372 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5. 373 374http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime:: 375 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit' 376 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted. 377 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and 378 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables. 379 380http.noEPSV:: 381 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl. 382 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't 383 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV' 384 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV). 385 386i18n.commitEncoding:: 387 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself 388 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when 389 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history 390 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other 391 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'. 392 393i18n.logOutputEncoding:: 394 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when 395 running `git-log` and friends. 396 397log.showroot:: 398 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event. 399 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree. 400 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which 401 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default. 402 403merge.summary:: 404 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created 405 merge commit messages. False by default. 406 407merge.verbosity:: 408 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge 409 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error 410 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only 411 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and 412 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2. 413 414pack.window:: 415 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no 416 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10. 417 418pull.octopus:: 419 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches 420 at once. 421 422pull.twohead:: 423 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch. 424 425remote.<name>.url:: 426 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or 427 gitlink:git-push[1]. 428 429remote.<name>.fetch:: 430 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See 431 gitlink:git-fetch[1]. 432 433remote.<name>.push:: 434 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See 435 gitlink:git-push[1]. 436 437remote.<name>.receivepack:: 438 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See 439 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1]. 440 441remote.<name>.uploadpack:: 442 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See 443 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1]. 444 445repack.usedeltabaseoffset:: 446 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses 447 delta-base offset. Defaults to false. 448 449show.difftree:: 450 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 451 for gitlink:git-show[1]. 452 453showbranch.default:: 454 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 455 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1]. 456 457tar.umask:: 458 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes 459 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects 460 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects. 461 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell 462 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above. 463 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will 464 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to 465 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default 466 value remains 0, which means world read-write. 467 468user.email:: 469 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits. 470 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL' 471 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 472 473user.name:: 474 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits. 475 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME' 476 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1]. 477 478user.signingkey:: 479 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to 480 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the 481 default selection with this variable. This option is passed 482 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key 483 using any method that gpg supports. 484 485whatchanged.difftree:: 486 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used 487 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1]. 488 489imap:: 490 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described 491 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1]. 492 493receive.unpackLimit:: 494 If the number of objects received in a push is below this 495 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object 496 files. However if the number of received objects equals or 497 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as 498 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the 499 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster, 500 especially on slow filesystems. 501 502receive.denyNonFastForwards:: 503 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is 504 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push, 505 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is 506 set when initializing a shared repository. 507 508transfer.unpackLimit:: 509 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are 510 not set, the value of this variable is used instead. 511 512