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
176 Set the path to the working tree. The value will not be
177 used in combination with repositories found automatically in
178 a .git directory (i.e. $GIT_DIR is not set).
179 This can be overriden by the GIT_WORK_TREE environment
180 variable and the '--work-tree' command line option.
182 core.logAllRefUpdates::
183 Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
184 "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
185 SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
186 only when the file exists. If this configuration
187 variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
188 file is automatically created for branch heads.
190 This information can be used to determine what commit
191 was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
193 This value is true by default in a repository that has
194 a working directory associated with it, and false by
195 default in a bare repository.
197 core.repositoryFormatVersion::
198 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
201 core.sharedRepository::
202 When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
203 several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
204 group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
205 repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
206 group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
207 reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default.
209 core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
210 If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
211 and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
214 An integer -1..9, indicating a default compression level.
215 -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no compression,
216 and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being slowest.
218 core.loosecompression::
219 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
220 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no
221 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
222 slowest. If not set, defaults to core.compression. If that is
223 not set, defaults to 0 (best speed).
225 core.packedGitWindowSize::
226 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
227 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow
228 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
229 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
230 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
231 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
232 a large number of large pack files.
234 Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
235 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should
236 be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do
237 not need to adjust this value.
239 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
241 core.packedGitLimit::
242 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
243 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many
244 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
245 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
247 Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
248 This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
249 the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value.
251 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
253 core.deltaBaseCacheLimit::
254 Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects
255 that multiple deltafied objects reference. By storing the
256 entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able
257 to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base
258 objects multiple times.
260 Default is 16 MiB on all platforms. This should be reasonable
261 for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects.
262 You probably do not need to adjust this value.
264 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
267 In addition to '.gitignore' (per-directory) and
268 '.git/info/exclude', git looks into this file for patterns
269 of files which are not meant to be tracked. See
270 gitlink:gitignore[5].
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.autosetupmerge::
292 Tells `git-branch` and `git-checkout` to setup new branches
293 so that gitlink:git-pull[1] will appropriately merge from that
294 remote branch. Note that even if this option is not set,
295 this behavior can be chosen per-branch using the `--track`
296 and `--no-track` options. This option defaults to false.
298 branch.<name>.remote::
299 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
300 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
302 branch.<name>.merge::
303 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
304 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
305 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
306 given by "branch.<name>.remote".
307 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
308 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
309 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
310 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
311 If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from
312 another branch in the local repository, you can point
313 branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting
314 `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.
317 A boolean to make git-clean do nothing unless given -f or -n. Defaults
321 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
322 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
323 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
324 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
326 color.branch.<slot>::
327 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
328 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
329 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
332 The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
333 two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors
334 accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
335 `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
336 `blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the
337 second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any,
341 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
342 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use
343 colors only when the output is to the terminal.
346 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies
347 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
348 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
349 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
350 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
351 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as
352 in color.branch.<slot>.
355 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
356 use (default is true).
359 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
360 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
361 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
362 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
364 color.status.<slot>::
365 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
366 one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
367 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
368 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
369 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
370 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
373 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
374 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
377 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it
378 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or
379 "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
382 If the number of objects fetched over the git native
383 transfer is below this
384 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
385 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
386 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
387 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
388 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
389 especially on slow filesystems.
392 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
393 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
396 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
397 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
398 include the dot if you want it).
400 gc.aggressiveWindow::
401 The window size parameter used in the delta compression
402 algorithm used by 'git gc --aggressive'. This defaults
406 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
407 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
408 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git
409 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells
410 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
411 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
412 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true`
413 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
414 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
417 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
418 this time; defaults to 90 days.
420 gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
421 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
422 this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
426 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
427 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
428 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
430 gc.rerereunresolved::
431 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
432 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
433 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
436 Whether the cvs server interface is enabled for this repository.
437 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
440 Path to a log file where the cvs server interface well... logs
441 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
444 If true, all files are sent to the client in mode '-kb'. This
445 causes the client to treat all files as binary files which suppresses
446 any newline munging it otherwise might do. A work-around for the
447 fact that there is no way yet to set single files to mode '-kb'.
450 Database used by git-cvsserver to cache revision information
451 derived from the git repository. The exact meaning depends on the
452 used database driver, for SQLite (which is the default driver) this
453 is a filename. Supports variable substitution (see
454 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details). May not contain semicolons (`;`).
455 Default: '%Ggitcvs.%m.sqlite'
458 Used Perl DBI driver. You can specify any available driver
459 for this here, but it might not work. git-cvsserver is tested
460 with 'DBD::SQLite', reported to work with 'DBD::Pg', and
461 reported *not* to work with 'DBD::mysql'. Experimental feature.
462 May not contain double colons (`:`). Default: 'SQLite'.
463 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
465 gitcvs.dbuser, gitcvs.dbpass::
466 Database user and password. Only useful if setting 'gitcvs.dbdriver',
467 since SQLite has no concept of database users and/or passwords.
468 'gitcvs.dbuser' supports variable substitution (see
469 gitlink:git-cvsserver[1] for details).
471 All gitcvs variables except for 'gitcvs.allbinary' can also specifed
472 as 'gitcvs.<access_method>.<varname>' (where 'access_method' is one
473 of "ext" and "pserver") to make them apply only for the given access
477 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
478 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
482 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
483 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
487 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
488 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
492 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
493 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
494 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
497 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
498 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
499 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
502 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
503 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
505 http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
506 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
507 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
508 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
509 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
512 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
513 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which don't
514 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
515 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
517 i18n.commitEncoding::
518 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
519 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
520 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
521 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
522 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
524 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
525 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
526 running `git-log` and friends.
529 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
530 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
531 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
532 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
535 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
536 merge commit messages. False by default.
539 Controls which merge resolution program is used by
540 gitlink:git-mergetool[l]. Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff",
541 "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff", "gvimdiff", and "opendiff".
544 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
545 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
546 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
547 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and
548 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2.
550 merge.<driver>.name::
551 Defines a human readable name for a custom low-level
552 merge driver. See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
554 merge.<driver>.driver::
555 Defines the command that implements a custom low-level
556 merge driver. See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
558 merge.<driver>.recursive::
559 Names a low-level merge driver to be used when
560 performing an internal merge between common ancestors.
561 See gitlink:gitattributes[5] for details.
564 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
565 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
568 The maximum delta depth used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
569 maximum depth is given on the command line. Defaults to 50.
572 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects
573 in a pack file. -1 is the zlib default. 0 means no
574 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
575 slowest. If not set, defaults to core.compression. If that is
576 not set, defaults to -1.
578 pack.deltaCacheSize::
579 The maxium memory in bytes used for caching deltas in
580 gitlink:git-pack-objects[1].
581 A value of 0 means no limit. Defaults to 0.
583 pack.deltaCacheLimit::
584 The maxium size of a delta, that is cached in
585 gitlink:git-pack-objects[1]. Defaults to 1000.
588 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
592 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
595 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
598 remote.<name>.fetch::
599 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
600 gitlink:git-fetch[1].
603 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
606 remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
607 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
608 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].
610 remote.<name>.receivepack::
611 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See
612 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
614 remote.<name>.uploadpack::
615 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See
616 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
618 remote.<name>.tagopt::
619 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching
623 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
624 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1].
626 repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
627 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
628 delta-base offset. Defaults to false.
631 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
632 for gitlink:git-show[1].
635 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
636 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
639 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
640 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
641 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
642 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
643 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
644 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
645 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
646 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
647 value remains 0, which means world read-write.
650 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
651 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL', 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL', and
652 'EMAIL' environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
655 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
656 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
657 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
660 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
661 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
662 default selection with this variable. This option is passed
663 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
664 using any method that gpg supports.
666 whatchanged.difftree::
667 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
668 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
671 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
672 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
674 receive.unpackLimit::
675 If the number of objects received in a push is below this
676 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
677 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
678 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
679 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
680 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
681 especially on slow filesystems.
683 receive.denyNonFastForwards::
684 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
685 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
686 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
687 set when initializing a shared repository.
689 transfer.unpackLimit::
690 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
691 not set, the value of this variable is used instead.