Documentation / config.txton commit Update git-diff documentation (f5e6b89)
   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        Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
  75        "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
  76        SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
  77        only when the file exists.  If this configuration
  78        variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
  79        file is automatically created for branch heads.
  80
  81        This information can be used to determine what commit
  82        was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".  This value is
  83        false by default (no automated creation of log files).
  84
  85core.repositoryFormatVersion::
  86        Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
  87        version.
  88
  89core.sharedRepository::
  90        When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
  91        several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
  92        group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
  93        repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
  94        group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
  95        reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init-db[1]. False by default.
  96
  97core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
  98        If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
  99        and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
 100
 101core.compression::
 102        An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
 103        are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
 104        compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
 105        slowest.
 106
 107core.legacyheaders::
 108        A boolean which enables the legacy object header format in case
 109        you want to interoperate with old clients accessing the object
 110        database directly (where the "http://" and "rsync://" protocols
 111        count as direct access).
 112
 113alias.*::
 114        Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
 115        after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
 116        "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
 117        confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
 118        hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
 119        spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
 120        quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
 121
 122apply.whitespace::
 123        Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
 124        as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
 125
 126branch.<name>.remote::
 127        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
 128        If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
 129
 130branch.<name>.merge::
 131        When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
 132        be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
 133        a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
 134        given by "branch.<name>.remote".
 135        The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
 136        `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
 137        this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
 138        Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
 139
 140color.diff::
 141        When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
 142        When false (or `never`), never.  When set to `auto`, use
 143        colors only when the output is to the terminal.
 144
 145color.diff.<slot>::
 146        Use customized color for diff colorization.  `<slot>`
 147        specifies which part of the patch to use the specified
 148        color, and is one of `plain` (context text), `meta`
 149        (metainformation), `frag` (hunk header), `old` (removed
 150        lines), or `new` (added lines).  The value for these
 151        configuration variables can be one of: `normal`, `bold`,
 152        `dim`, `ul`, `blink`, `reverse`, `reset`, `black`,
 153        `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`, `magenta`, `cyan`, or
 154        `white`.
 155
 156color.pager::
 157        A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
 158        use (default is true).
 159
 160color.status::
 161        A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
 162        gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
 163        `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
 164        only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
 165
 166color.status.<slot>::
 167        Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
 168        one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
 169        `updated` (files which are updated but not committed),
 170        `changed` (files which are changed but not updated in the index),
 171        or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
 172        these variables may be specified as in color.diff.<slot>.
 173
 174diff.renameLimit::
 175        The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
 176        detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
 177
 178diff.renames::
 179        Tells git to detect renames.  If set to any boolean value, it
 180        will enable basic rename detection.  If set to "copies" or
 181        "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
 182
 183format.headers::
 184        Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
 185        by mail.  See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
 186
 187gitcvs.enabled::
 188        Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository.
 189        See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 190
 191gitcvs.logfile::
 192        Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs
 193        various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 194
 195http.sslVerify::
 196        Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 197        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
 198        variable.
 199
 200http.sslCert::
 201        File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 202        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
 203        variable.
 204
 205http.sslKey::
 206        File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
 207        over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
 208        variable.
 209
 210http.sslCAInfo::
 211        File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
 212        fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
 213        'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
 214
 215http.sslCAPath::
 216        Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
 217        with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
 218        by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
 219
 220http.maxRequests::
 221        How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
 222        by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
 223
 224http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
 225        If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
 226        for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
 227        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
 228        'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
 229
 230http.noEPSV::
 231        A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
 232        This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't
 233        support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
 234        environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
 235
 236i18n.commitEncoding::
 237        Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
 238        does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
 239        importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
 240        browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
 241        porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
 242
 243log.showroot::
 244        If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
 245        This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
 246        Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
 247        normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
 248
 249merge.summary::
 250        Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
 251        merge commit messages. False by default.
 252
 253pack.window::
 254        The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
 255        window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
 256
 257pull.octopus::
 258        The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
 259        at once.
 260
 261pull.twohead::
 262        The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
 263
 264remote.<name>.url::
 265        The URL of a remote repository.  See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
 266        gitlink:git-push[1].
 267
 268remote.<name>.fetch::
 269        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
 270        gitlink:git-fetch[1].
 271
 272remote.<name>.push::
 273        The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
 274        gitlink:git-push[1].
 275
 276repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
 277        Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
 278        delta-base offset.  Defaults to false.
 279
 280show.difftree::
 281        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 282        for gitlink:git-show[1].
 283
 284showbranch.default::
 285        The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 286        See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 287
 288tar.umask::
 289        By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
 290        to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
 291        such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
 292        With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
 293        gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
 294        The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
 295        be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
 296        the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
 297        value remains 0, which means world read-write.
 298
 299user.email::
 300        Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 301        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
 302        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 303
 304user.name::
 305        Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 306        Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
 307        environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 308
 309whatchanged.difftree::
 310        The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 311        for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
 312
 313imap::
 314        The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
 315        in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
 316
 317receive.unpackLimit::
 318        If the number of objects received in a push is below this
 319        limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
 320        files. However if the number of received objects equals or
 321        exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
 322        a pack, after adding any missing delta bases.  Storing the
 323        pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
 324        especially on slow filesystems.
 325
 326receive.denyNonFastForwards::
 327        If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
 328        not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
 329        even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
 330        set when initializing a shared repository.
 331