4 The git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect
5 the git command's behavior. `.git/config` file for each repository
6 is used to store the information for that repository, and
7 `$HOME/.gitconfig` is used to store per user information to give
8 fallback values for `.git/config` file. The file `/etc/gitconfig`
9 can be used to store system-wide defaults.
11 They can be used by both the git plumbing
12 and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where
13 in the fully qualified variable name the variable itself is the last
14 dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
15 dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
16 characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times.
21 The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
22 ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
23 blank lines are ignored.
25 The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with
26 the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
27 section begins. Section names are not case sensitive. Only alphanumeric
28 characters, '`-`' and '`.`' are allowed in section names. Each variable
29 must belong to some section, which means that there must be section
30 header before first setting of a variable.
32 Sections can be further divided into subsections. To begin a subsection
33 put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name,
34 in the section header, like in example below:
37 [section "subsection"]
41 Subsection names can contain any characters except newline (doublequote
42 '`"`' and backslash have to be escaped as '`\"`' and '`\\`',
43 respectively) and are case sensitive. Section header cannot span multiple
44 lines. Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection.
45 You can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you
48 There is also (case insensitive) alternative `[section.subsection]` syntax.
49 In this syntax subsection names follow the same restrictions as for section
52 All 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
54 is taken as 'name' and the variable is recognized as boolean "true".
55 The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
56 characters and '`-`' are allowed. There can be more than one value
57 for a given variable; we say then that variable is multivalued.
59 Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded.
60 Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim.
62 The values following the equals sign in variable assign are all either
63 a string, an integer, or a boolean. Boolean values may be given as yes/no,
64 0/1 or true/false. Case is not significant in boolean values, when
65 converting value to the canonical form using '--bool' type specifier;
66 `git-config` will ensure that the output is "true" or "false".
68 String values may be entirely or partially enclosed in double quotes.
69 You need to enclose variable value in double quotes if you want to
70 preserve leading or trailing whitespace, or if variable value contains
71 beginning of comment characters (if it contains '#' or ';').
72 Double quote '`"`' and backslash '`\`' characters in variable value must
73 be escaped: use '`\"`' for '`"`' and '`\\`' for '`\`'.
75 The following escape sequences (beside '`\"`' and '`\\`') are recognized:
76 '`\n`' for newline character (NL), '`\t`' for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB)
77 and '`\b`' for backspace (BS). No other char escape sequence, nor octal
78 char sequences are valid.
80 Variable value ending in a '`\`' is continued on the next line in the
81 customary UNIX fashion.
83 Some variables may require special value format.
90 ; Don't trust file modes
95 external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u"
100 merge = refs/heads/devel
104 gitProxy="ssh" for "ssh://kernel.org/"
105 gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest
110 Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete.
111 For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description
112 in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core
113 porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
146 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable
147 (which always applies universally, without the special "for"
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].
157 core.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.
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].
169 This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or
170 gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created. By default a
171 repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare =
172 false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare
175 core.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.
183 This information can be used to determine what commit
184 was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
186 This value is true by default in a repository that has
187 a working directory associated with it, and false by
188 default in a bare repository.
190 core.repositoryFormatVersion::
191 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
194 core.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.
202 core.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.
207 An integer -1..9, indicating a default compression level.
208 -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no compression,
209 and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being slowest.
211 core.loosecompression::
212 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
213 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no
214 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
215 slowest. If not set, defaults to core.compression. If that is
216 not set, defaults to 0 (best speed).
220 changes the format of loose objects so that they are more
221 efficient to pack and to send out of the repository over git
222 native protocol, since v1.4.2. However, loose objects
223 written in the new format cannot be read by git older than
224 that version; people fetching from your repository using
225 older versions of git over dumb transports (e.g. http)
226 will also be affected.
228 To let git use the new loose object format, you have to
229 set core.legacyheaders to false.
231 core.packedGitWindowSize::
232 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
233 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow
234 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
235 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
236 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
237 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
238 a large number of large pack files.
240 Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
241 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should
242 be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do
243 not need to adjust this value.
245 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
247 core.packedGitLimit::
248 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
249 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many
250 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
251 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
253 Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
254 This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
255 the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value.
257 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
259 core.deltaBaseCacheLimit::
260 Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects
261 that multiple deltafied objects reference. By storing the
262 entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able
263 to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base
264 objects multiple times.
266 Default is 16 MiB on all platforms. This should be reasonable
267 for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects.
268 You probably do not need to adjust this value.
270 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
273 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
274 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
275 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
276 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
277 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
278 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
279 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
281 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
282 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining
283 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
284 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
285 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
288 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
289 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
291 branch.<name>.remote::
292 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
293 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
295 branch.<name>.merge::
296 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
297 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
298 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
299 given by "branch.<name>.remote".
300 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
301 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
302 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
303 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
304 If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from
305 another branch in the local repository, you can point
306 branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting
307 `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.
310 A boolean to make git-clean do nothing unless given -f or -n. Defaults
314 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
315 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
316 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
317 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
319 color.branch.<slot>::
320 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
321 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
322 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
325 The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
326 two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors
327 accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
328 `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
329 `blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the
330 second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any,
334 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
335 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use
336 colors only when the output is to the terminal.
339 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies
340 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
341 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
342 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
343 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
344 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as
345 in color.branch.<slot>.
348 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
349 use (default is true).
352 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
353 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
354 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
355 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
357 color.status.<slot>::
358 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
359 one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
360 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
361 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
362 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
363 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
366 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
367 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
370 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it
371 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or
372 "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
375 If the number of objects fetched over the git native
376 transfer is below this
377 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
378 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
379 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
380 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
381 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
382 especially on slow filesystems.
385 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
386 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
389 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
390 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
391 include the dot if you want it).
394 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
395 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
396 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git
397 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells
398 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
399 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
400 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true`
401 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
402 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
405 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
406 this time; defaults to 90 days.
408 gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
409 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
410 this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
414 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
415 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
416 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
418 gc.rerereunresolved::
419 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
420 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
421 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
424 Whether the cvs server interface is enabled for this repository.
425 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
428 Path to a log file where the cvs server interface well... logs
429 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
432 If true, all files are sent to the client in mode '-kb'. This
433 causes the client to treat all files as binary files which suppresses
434 any newline munging it otherwise might do. A work-around for the
435 fact that there is no way yet to set single files to mode '-kb'.
438 Database used by git-cvsserver to cache revision information
439 derived from the git repository. The exact meaning depends on the
440 used database driver, for SQLite (which is the default driver) this
441 is a filename. Supports variable substitution (see
442 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details). May not contain semicolons (`;`).
443 Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
446 Used Perl DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
447 for this here, but it might not work. git-cvsserver is tested
448 with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with 'DBD::Pg', and
449 reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'. Experimental feature.
450 May not contain double colons (`:`). Default: 'SQLite'.
451 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
453 gitcvs.dbuser, gitcvs.dbpass::
454 Database user and password. Only useful if setting 'gitcvs.dbdriver',
455 since SQLite has no concept of database users and/or passwords.
456 'gitcvs.dbuser' supports variable substitution (see
457 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details).
459 All gitcvs variables except for 'gitcvs.allbinary' can also specifed
460 as 'gitcvs.<access_method>.<varname>' (where 'access_method' is one
461 of "ext" and "pserver") to make them apply only for the given access
465 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
466 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
470 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
471 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
475 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
476 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
480 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
481 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
482 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
485 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
486 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
487 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
490 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
491 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
493 http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
494 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
495 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
496 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
497 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
500 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
501 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which don't
502 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
503 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
505 i18n.commitEncoding::
506 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
507 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
508 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
509 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
510 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
512 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
513 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
514 running `git-log` and friends.
517 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
518 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
519 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
520 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
523 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
524 merge commit messages. False by default.
527 Controls which merge resolution program is used by
528 gitlink:git-mergetool[l]. Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff",
529 "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff", and "opendiff"
532 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
533 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
534 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
535 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and
536 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2.
538 merge.<driver>.name::
539 Defines a human readable name for a custom low-level
540 merge driver. See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
542 merge.<driver>.driver::
543 Defines the command that implements a custom low-level
544 merge driver. See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
546 merge.<driver>.recursive::
547 Names a low-level merge driver to be used when
548 performing an internal merge between common ancestors.
549 See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
552 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
553 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
556 The maximum delta depth used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
557 maximum depth is given on the command line. Defaults to 50.
560 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects
561 in a pack file. -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no
562 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
563 slowest. If not set, defaults to core.compression. If that is
564 not set, defaults to -1.
567 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
571 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
574 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
577 remote.<name>.fetch::
578 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
579 gitlink:git-fetch[1].
582 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
585 remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
586 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
587 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].
589 remote.<name>.receivepack::
590 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See
591 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
593 remote.<name>.uploadpack::
594 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See
595 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
597 remote.<name>.tagopt::
598 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching
602 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
603 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1].
605 repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
606 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
607 delta-base offset. Defaults to false.
610 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
611 for gitlink:git-show[1].
614 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
615 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
618 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
619 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
620 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
621 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
622 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
623 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
624 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
625 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
626 value remains 0, which means world read-write.
629 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
630 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL', 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL', and
631 'EMAIL' environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
634 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
635 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
636 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
639 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
640 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
641 default selection with this variable. This option is passed
642 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
643 using any method that gpg supports.
645 whatchanged.difftree::
646 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
647 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
650 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
651 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
653 receive.unpackLimit::
654 If the number of objects received in a push is below this
655 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
656 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
657 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
658 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
659 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
660 especially on slow filesystems.
662 receive.denyNonFastForwards::
663 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
664 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
665 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
666 set when initializing a shared repository.
668 transfer.unpackLimit::
669 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
670 not set, the value of this variable is used instead.