dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
dot. The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric
characters and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character. Some
-variables may appear multiple times.
+variables may appear multiple times; we say then that the variable is
+multivalued.
Syntax
~~~~~~
The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with
the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
-section begins. Section names are not case sensitive. Only alphanumeric
+section begins. Section names are case-insensitive. Only alphanumeric
characters, `-` and `.` are allowed in section names. Each variable
must belong to some section, which means that there must be a section
header before the first setting of a variable.
--------
Subsection names are case sensitive and can contain any characters except
-newline (doublequote `"` and backslash have to be escaped as `\"` and `\\`,
-respectively). Section headers cannot span multiple
+newline (doublequote `"` and backslash can be included by escaping them
+as `\"` and `\\`, respectively). Section headers cannot span multiple
lines. Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection.
You can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you
don't need to.
'name = value'. If there is no equal sign on the line, the entire line
is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true".
The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric characters
-and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character. There can be more
-than one value for a given variable; we say then that the variable is
-multivalued.
+and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character.
-Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded.
-Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim.
+A line that defines a value can be continued to the next line by
+ending it with a `\`; the backquote and the end-of-line are
+stripped. Leading whitespaces after 'name =', the remainder of the
+line after the first comment character '#' or ';', and trailing
+whitespaces of the line are discarded unless they are enclosed in
+double quotes. Internal whitespaces within the value are retained
+verbatim.
-The values following the equals sign in variable assign are all either
-a string, an integer, or a boolean. Boolean values may be given as yes/no,
-1/0, true/false or on/off. Case is not significant in boolean values, when
-converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type specifier;
-'git config' will ensure that the output is "true" or "false".
-
-String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes.
-You need to enclose variable values in double quotes if you want to
-preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if the variable value contains
-comment characters (i.e. it contains '#' or ';').
-Double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters in variable values must
-be escaped: use `\"` for `"` and `\\` for `\`.
+Inside double quotes, double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters
+must be escaped: use `\"` for `"` and `\\` for `\`.
The following escape sequences (beside `\"` and `\\`) are recognized:
`\n` for newline character (NL), `\t` for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB)
and `\b` for backspace (BS). No other char escape sequence, nor octal
char sequences are valid.
-Variable values ending in a `\` are continued on the next line in the
-customary UNIX fashion.
-
-Some variables may require a special value format.
Includes
~~~~~~~~
path = foo ; expand "foo" relative to the current file
path = ~/foo ; expand "foo" in your $HOME directory
+
+Values
+~~~~~~
+
+Values of many variables are treated as a simple string, but there
+are variables that take values of specific types and there are rules
+as to how to spell them.
+
+boolean::
+
+ When a variable is said to take a boolean value, many
+ synonyms are accepted for 'true' and 'false'; these are all
+ case-insensitive.
+
+ true;; Boolean true can be spelled as `yes`, `on`, `true`,
+ or `1`. Also, a variable defined without `= <value>`
+ is taken as true.
+
+ false;; Boolean false can be spelled as `no`, `off`,
+ `false`, or `0`.
++
+When converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type
+specifier; 'git config' will ensure that the output is "true" or
+"false" (spelled in lowercase).
+
+integer::
+ The value for many variables that specify various sizes can
+ be suffixed with `k`, `M`,... to mean "scale the number by
+ 1024", "by 1024x1024", etc.
+
+
Variables
~~~~~~~~~
pushNeedsForce::
Shown when linkgit:git-push[1] rejects an update that
tries to overwrite a remote ref that points at an
- object that is not a committish, or make the remote
- ref point at an object that is not a committish.
+ object that is not a commit-ish, or make the remote
+ ref point at an object that is not a commit-ish.
statusHints::
Show directions on how to proceed from the current
state in the output of linkgit:git-status[1], in
When false, file names are handled fully transparent by Git,
which is backward compatible with older versions of Git.
+core.protectHFS::
+ If set to true, do not allow checkout of paths that would
+ be considered equivalent to `.git` on an HFS+ filesystem.
+ Defaults to `true` on Mac OS, and `false` elsewhere.
+
+core.protectNTFS::
+ If set to true, do not allow checkout of paths that would
+ cause problems with the NTFS filesystem, e.g. conflict with
+ 8.3 "short" names.
+ Defaults to `true` on Windows, and `false` elsewhere.
+
core.trustctime::
If false, the ctime differences between the index and the
working tree are ignored; useful when the inode change time
When not configured the default commit message editor is used instead.
core.pager::
- The command that Git will use to paginate output. Can
- be overridden with the `GIT_PAGER` environment
- variable. Note that Git sets the `LESS` environment
- variable to `FRSX` if it is unset when it runs the
- pager. One can change these settings by setting the
- `LESS` variable to some other value. Alternately,
- these settings can be overridden on a project or
- global basis by setting the `core.pager` option.
- Setting `core.pager` has no effect on the `LESS`
- environment variable behaviour above, so if you want
- to override Git's default settings this way, you need
- to be explicit. For example, to disable the S option
- in a backward compatible manner, set `core.pager`
- to `less -+S`. This will be passed to the shell by
- Git, which will translate the final command to
- `LESS=FRSX less -+S`.
+ Text viewer for use by Git commands (e.g., 'less'). The value
+ is meant to be interpreted by the shell. The order of preference
+ is the `$GIT_PAGER` environment variable, then `core.pager`
+ configuration, then `$PAGER`, and then the default chosen at
+ compile time (usually 'less').
++
+When the `LESS` environment variable is unset, Git sets it to `FRSX`
+(if `LESS` environment variable is set, Git does not change it at
+all). If you want to selectively override Git's default setting
+for `LESS`, you can set `core.pager` to e.g. `less -+S`. This will
+be passed to the shell by Git, which will translate the final
+command to `LESS=FRSX less -+S`. The environment tells the command
+to set the `S` option to chop long lines but the command line
+resets it to the default to fold long lines.
core.whitespace::
A comma separated list of common whitespace problems to
overridden by `branch.<name>.pushremote`. If no remote is
configured, or if you are not on any branch, it defaults to
`origin` for fetching and `remote.pushdefault` for pushing.
+ Additionally, `.` (a period) is the current local repository
+ (a dot-repository), see `branch.<name>.merge`'s final note below.
branch.<name>.pushremote::
When on branch <name>, it overrides `branch.<name>.remote` for
Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
If you wish to setup 'git pull' so that it merges into <name> from
another branch in the local repository, you can point
- branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting
- `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.
+ branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the relative path
+ setting `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.
branch.<name>.mergeoptions::
Sets default options for merging into branch <name>. The syntax and
instead of merging the default branch from the default remote when
"git pull" is run. See "pull.rebase" for doing this in a non
branch-specific manner.
++
+ When preserve, also pass `--preserve-merges` along to 'git rebase'
+ so that locally committed merge commits will not be flattened
+ by running 'git pull'.
+
*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use
it unless you understand the implications (see linkgit:git-rebase[1]
working repository in gitweb (see linkgit:git-instaweb[1]).
clean.requireForce::
- A boolean to make git-clean do nothing unless given -f
- or -n. Defaults to true.
+ A boolean to make git-clean do nothing unless given -f,
+ -i or -n. Defaults to true.
color.branch::
A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
especially on slow filesystems. If not set, the value of
`transfer.unpackLimit` is used instead.
+fetch.prune::
+ If true, fetch will automatically behave as if the `--prune`
+ option was given on the command line. See also `remote.<name>.prune`.
+
format.attach::
Enable multipart/mixed attachments as the default for
'format-patch'. The value can also be a double quoted string
of the file to read cookies from should be plain HTTP headers or
the Netscape/Mozilla cookie file format (see linkgit:curl[1]).
NOTE that the file specified with http.cookiefile is only used as
- input. No cookies will be stored in the file.
+ input unless http.saveCookies is set.
+
+http.savecookies::
+ If set, store cookies received during requests to the file specified by
+ http.cookiefile. Has no effect if http.cookiefile is unset.
http.sslVerify::
Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
of common USER_AGENT strings (but not including those like git/1.7.1).
Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_USER_AGENT' environment variable.
+http.<url>.*::
+ Any of the http.* options above can be applied selectively to some urls.
+ For a config key to match a URL, each element of the config key is
+ compared to that of the URL, in the following order:
++
+--
+. Scheme (e.g., `https` in `https://example.com/`). This field
+ must match exactly between the config key and the URL.
+
+. Host/domain name (e.g., `example.com` in `https://example.com/`).
+ This field must match exactly between the config key and the URL.
+
+. Port number (e.g., `8080` in `http://example.com:8080/`).
+ This field must match exactly between the config key and the URL.
+ Omitted port numbers are automatically converted to the correct
+ default for the scheme before matching.
+
+. Path (e.g., `repo.git` in `https://example.com/repo.git`). The
+ path field of the config key must match the path field of the URL
+ either exactly or as a prefix of slash-delimited path elements. This means
+ a config key with path `foo/` matches URL path `foo/bar`. A prefix can only
+ match on a slash (`/`) boundary. Longer matches take precedence (so a config
+ key with path `foo/bar` is a better match to URL path `foo/bar` than a config
+ key with just path `foo/`).
+
+. User name (e.g., `user` in `https://user@example.com/repo.git`). If
+ the config key has a user name it must match the user name in the
+ URL exactly. If the config key does not have a user name, that
+ config key will match a URL with any user name (including none),
+ but at a lower precedence than a config key with a user name.
+--
++
+The list above is ordered by decreasing precedence; a URL that matches
+a config key's path is preferred to one that matches its user name. For example,
+if the URL is `https://user@example.com/foo/bar` a config key match of
+`https://example.com/foo` will be preferred over a config key match of
+`https://user@example.com`.
++
+All URLs are normalized before attempting any matching (the password part,
+if embedded in the URL, is always ignored for matching purposes) so that
+equivalent urls that are simply spelled differently will match properly.
+Environment variable settings always override any matches. The urls that are
+matched against are those given directly to Git commands. This means any URLs
+visited as a result of a redirection do not participate in matching.
+
i18n.commitEncoding::
Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; Git itself
does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
of merging the default branch from the default remote when "git
pull" is run. See "branch.<name>.rebase" for setting this on a
per-branch basis.
++
+ When preserve, also pass `--preserve-merges` along to 'git rebase'
+ so that locally committed merge commits will not be flattened
+ by running 'git pull'.
+
*NOTE*: this is a possibly dangerous operation; do *not* use
it unless you understand the implications (see linkgit:git-rebase[1]
Setting this to a value <vcs> will cause Git to interact with
the remote with the git-remote-<vcs> helper.
+remote.<name>.prune::
+ When set to true, fetching from this remote by default will also
+ remove any remote-tracking branches which no longer exist on the
+ remote (as if the `--prune` option was give on the command line).
+ Overrides `fetch.prune` settings, if any.
+
remotes.<group>::
The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
<group>". See linkgit:git-remote[1].
Set to true to enable --branch by default in linkgit:git-status[1].
The option --no-branch takes precedence over this variable.
+status.displayCommentPrefix::
+ If set to true, linkgit:git-status[1] will insert a comment
+ prefix before each output line (starting with
+ `core.commentChar`, i.e. `#` by default). This was the
+ behavior of linkgit:git-status[1] in Git 1.8.4 and previous.
+ Defaults to false.
+
status.showUntrackedFiles::
By default, linkgit:git-status[1] and linkgit:git-commit[1] show
files which are not currently tracked by Git. Directories which
If this is set to a non zero number or true (identical to -1 or an
unlimited number), the submodule summary will be enabled and a
summary of commits for modified submodules will be shown (see
- --summary-limit option of linkgit:git-submodule[1]).
+ --summary-limit option of linkgit:git-submodule[1]). Please note
+ that the summary output command will be suppressed for all
+ submodules when `diff.ignoreSubmodules` is set to 'all' or only
+ for those submodules where `submodule.<name>.ignore=all`. To
+ also view the summary for ignored submodules you can either use
+ the --ignore-submodules=dirty command line option or the 'git
+ submodule summary' command, which shows a similar output but does
+ not honor these settings.
submodule.<name>.path::
submodule.<name>.url::
submodules that have untracked files in their work tree as changed.
This setting overrides any setting made in .gitmodules for this submodule,
both settings can be overridden on the command line by using the
- "--ignore-submodules" option.
+ "--ignore-submodules" option. The 'git submodule' commands are not
+ affected by this setting.
tar.umask::
This variable can be used to restrict the permission bits of
environment variables. See linkgit:git-commit-tree[1].
user.signingkey::
- If linkgit:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
- automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
- default selection with this variable. This option is passed
- unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
- using any method that gpg supports.
+ If linkgit:git-tag[1] or linkgit:git-commit[1] is not selecting the
+ key you want it to automatically when creating a signed tag or
+ commit, you can override the default selection with this variable.
+ This option is passed unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter,
+ so you may specify a key using any method that gpg supports.
web.browser::
Specify a web browser that may be used by some commands.