Documentation / config.txton commit Documentation/git-svn: document some of the newer features (e8f5d90)
   1CONFIGURATION FILE
   2------------------
   3
   4The git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect
   5the git command's behavior. They can be used by both the git plumbing
   6and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where
   7in the fully qualified variable name the variable itself is the last
   8dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
   9dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
  10characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times.
  11
  12The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
  13ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
  14blank lines are ignored, lines containing strings enclosed in square
  15brackets start sections and all the other lines are recognized
  16as setting variables, in the form 'name = value'. If there is no equal
  17sign on the line, the entire line is taken as 'name' and the variable
  18is recognized as boolean "true". String values may be entirely or partially
  19enclosed in double quotes; some variables may require special value format.
  20
  21Example
  22~~~~~~~
  23
  24        # Core variables
  25        [core]
  26                ; Don't trust file modes
  27                filemode = false
  28
  29        # Our diff algorithm
  30        [diff]
  31                external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u"
  32                renames = true
  33
  34Variables
  35~~~~~~~~~
  36
  37Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete.
  38For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description
  39in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core
  40porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation.
  41
  42core.fileMode::
  43        If false, the executable bit differences between the index and
  44        the working copy are ignored; useful on broken filesystems like FAT.
  45        See gitlink:git-update-index[1]. True by default.
  46
  47core.gitProxy::
  48        A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead
  49        of establishing direct connection to the remote server when
  50        using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is
  51        in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only
  52        on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable
  53        may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order;
  54        the first match wins.
  55+
  56Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable
  57(which always applies universally, without the special "for"
  58handling).
  59
  60core.ignoreStat::
  61        The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you
  62        mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes
  63        by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very
  64        slow, such as Microsoft Windows.  See gitlink:git-update-index[1].
  65        False by default.
  66
  67core.preferSymlinkRefs::
  68        Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD
  69        and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
  70        This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
  71        expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
  72
  73core.logAllRefUpdates::
  74        If true, `git-update-ref` will append a line to
  75        "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>" listing the new SHA1 and the date/time
  76        of the update.  If the file does not exist it will be
  77        created automatically.  This information can be used to
  78        determine what commit was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
  79        This value is false by default (no logging).
  80
  81core.repositoryFormatVersion::
  82        Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
  83        version.
  84
  85core.sharedRepository::
  86        When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
  87        several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
  88        group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
  89        repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
  90        group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
  91        reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init-db[1]. False by default.
  92
  93core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
  94        If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
  95        and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
  96
  97core.compression::
  98        An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
  99        are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
 100        compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
 101        slowest.
 102
 103core.legacyheaders::
 104        A boolean which enables the legacy object header format in case
 105        you want to interoperate with old clients accessing the object
 106        database directly (where the "http://" and "rsync://" protocols
 107        count as direct access).
 108
 109alias.*::
 110        Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
 111        after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
 112        "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
 113        confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
 114        hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
 115        spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
 116        quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
 117
 118apply.whitespace::
 119        Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
 120        as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
 121
 122branch.<name>.remote::
 123        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
 124
 125branch.<name>.merge::
 126        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default remote branch
 127        to be merged.
 128
 129pager.color::
 130        A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
 131        use (default is true).
 132
 133diff.color::
 134        When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
 135        When false (or `never`), never.  When set to `auto`, use
 136        colors only when the output is to the terminal.
 137
 138diff.color.<slot>::
 139        Use customized color for diff colorization.  `<slot>`
 140        specifies which part of the patch to use the specified
 141        color, and is one of `plain` (context text), `meta`
 142        (metainformation), `frag` (hunk header), `old` (removed
 143        lines), or `new` (added lines).  The value for these
 144        configuration variables can be one of: `normal`, `bold`,
 145        `dim`, `ul`, `blink`, `reverse`, `reset`, `black`,
 146        `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`, `magenta`, `cyan`, or
 147        `white`.
 148
 149diff.renameLimit::
 150        The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
 151        detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
 152
 153diff.renames::
 154        Tells git to detect renames.  If set to any boolean value, it
 155        will enable basic rename detection.  If set to "copies" or
 156        "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
 157
 158format.headers::
 159        Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
 160        by mail.  See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
 161
 162gitcvs.enabled::
 163        Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository.
 164        See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 165
 166gitcvs.logfile::
 167        Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs
 168        various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 169
 170http.sslVerify::
 171        Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 172        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
 173        variable.
 174
 175http.sslCert::
 176        File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 177        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
 178        variable.
 179
 180http.sslKey::
 181        File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
 182        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
 183        variable.
 184
 185http.sslCAInfo::
 186        File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
 187        fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
 188        'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
 189
 190http.sslCAPath::
 191        Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
 192        with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
 193        by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
 194
 195http.maxRequests::
 196        How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
 197        by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
 198
 199http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
 200        If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
 201        for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
 202        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
 203        'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
 204
 205http.noEPSV::
 206        A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
 207        This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't
 208        support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
 209        environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
 210
 211i18n.commitEncoding::
 212        Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
 213        does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
 214        importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
 215        browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
 216        porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
 217
 218merge.summary::
 219        Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
 220        merge commit messages. False by default.
 221
 222pack.window::
 223        The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
 224        window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
 225
 226pull.octopus::
 227        The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
 228        at once.
 229
 230pull.twohead::
 231        The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
 232
 233show.difftree::
 234        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 235        for gitlink:git-show[1].
 236
 237showbranch.default::
 238        The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 239        See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 240
 241status.color::
 242        A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
 243        gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
 244        `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
 245        only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
 246
 247status.color.<slot>::
 248        Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
 249        one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
 250        `updated` (files which are updated but not committed),
 251        `changed` (files which are changed but not updated in the index),
 252        or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
 253        these variables may be specified as in diff.color.<slot>.
 254
 255tar.umask::
 256        By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
 257        to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
 258        such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
 259        With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
 260        gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
 261        The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
 262        be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
 263        the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
 264        value remains 0, which means world read-write.
 265
 266user.email::
 267        Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 268        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
 269        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 270
 271user.name::
 272        Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 273        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
 274        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 275
 276whatchanged.difftree::
 277        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 278        for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
 279
 280imap::
 281        The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
 282        in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
 283
 284receive.denyNonFastforwads::
 285        If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
 286        not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
 287        even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
 288        set when initializing a shared repository.
 289