Documentation/config.txt

   1 CONFIGURATION FILE
   2 ------------------
   3
   4 The Git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect
   5 the Git commands' behavior. The files `.git/config` and optionally
   6 `config.worktree` (see the "CONFIGURATION FILE" section of
   7 linkgit:git-worktree[1]) in each repository are used to store the
   8 configuration for that repository, and `$HOME/.gitconfig` is used to
   9 store a per-user configuration as fallback values for the `.git/config`
  10 file. The file `/etc/gitconfig` can be used to store a system-wide
  11 default configuration.
  12
  13 The configuration variables are used by both the Git plumbing
  14 and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, wherein
  15 the fully qualified variable name of the variable itself is the last
  16 dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
  17 dot. The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric
  18 characters and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character.  Some
  19 variables may appear multiple times; we say then that the variable is
  20 multivalued.
  21
  22 Syntax
  23 ~~~~~~
  24
  25 The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
  26 ignored.  The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
  27 blank lines are ignored.
  28
  29 The file consists of sections and variables.  A section begins with
  30 the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next
  31 section begins.  Section names are case-insensitive.  Only alphanumeric
  32 characters, `-` and `.` are allowed in section names.  Each variable
  33 must belong to some section, which means that there must be a section
  34 header before the first setting of a variable.
  35
  36 Sections can be further divided into subsections.  To begin a subsection
  37 put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name,
  38 in the section header, like in the example below:
  39
  40 --------
  41         [section "subsection"]
  42
  43 --------
  44
  45 Subsection names are case sensitive and can contain any characters except
  46 newline and the null byte. Doublequote `"` and backslash can be included
  47 by escaping them as `\"` and `\\`, respectively. Backslashes preceding
  48 other characters are dropped when reading; for example, `\t` is read as
  49 `t` and `\0` is read as `0`. Section headers cannot span multiple lines.
  50 Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection. You
  51 can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you don't
  52 need to.
  53
  54 There is also a deprecated `[section.subsection]` syntax. With this
  55 syntax, the subsection name is converted to lower-case and is also
  56 compared case sensitively. These subsection names follow the same
  57 restrictions as section names.
  58
  59 All the other lines (and the remainder of the line after the section
  60 header) are recognized as setting variables, in the form
  61 'name = value' (or just 'name', which is a short-hand to say that
  62 the variable is the boolean "true").
  63 The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric characters
  64 and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character.
  65
  66 A line that defines a value can be continued to the next line by
  67 ending it with a `\`; the backslash and the end-of-line are
  68 stripped.  Leading whitespaces after 'name =', the remainder of the
  69 line after the first comment character '#' or ';', and trailing
  70 whitespaces of the line are discarded unless they are enclosed in
  71 double quotes.  Internal whitespaces within the value are retained
  72 verbatim.
  73
  74 Inside double quotes, double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters
  75 must be escaped: use `\"` for `"` and `\\` for `\`.
  76
  77 The following escape sequences (beside `\"` and `\\`) are recognized:
  78 `\n` for newline character (NL), `\t` for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB)
  79 and `\b` for backspace (BS).  Other char escape sequences (including octal
  80 escape sequences) are invalid.
  81
  82
  83 Includes
  84 ~~~~~~~~
  85
  86 The `include` and `includeIf` sections allow you to include config
  87 directives from another source. These sections behave identically to
  88 each other with the exception that `includeIf` sections may be ignored
  89 if their condition does not evaluate to true; see "Conditional includes"
  90 below.
  91
  92 You can include a config file from another by setting the special
  93 `include.path` (or `includeIf.*.path`) variable to the name of the file
  94 to be included. The variable takes a pathname as its value, and is
  95 subject to tilde expansion. These variables can be given multiple times.
  96
  97 The contents of the included file are inserted immediately, as if they
  98 had been found at the location of the include directive. If the value of the
  99 variable is a relative path, the path is considered to
 100 be relative to the configuration file in which the include directive
 101 was found.  See below for examples.
 102
 103 Conditional includes
 104 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 105
 106 You can include a config file from another conditionally by setting a
 107 `includeIf.<condition>.path` variable to the name of the file to be
 108 included.
 109
 110 The condition starts with a keyword followed by a colon and some data
 111 whose format and meaning depends on the keyword. Supported keywords
 112 are:
 113
 114 `gitdir`::
 115
 116         The data that follows the keyword `gitdir:` is used as a glob
 117         pattern. If the location of the .git directory matches the
 118         pattern, the include condition is met.
 119 +
 120 The .git location may be auto-discovered, or come from `$GIT_DIR`
 121 environment variable. If the repository is auto discovered via a .git
 122 file (e.g. from submodules, or a linked worktree), the .git location
 123 would be the final location where the .git directory is, not where the
 124 .git file is.
 125 +
 126 The pattern can contain standard globbing wildcards and two additional
 127 ones, `**/` and `/**`, that can match multiple path components. Please
 128 refer to linkgit:gitignore[5] for details. For convenience:
 129
 130  * If the pattern starts with `~/`, `~` will be substituted with the
 131    content of the environment variable `HOME`.
 132
 133  * If the pattern starts with `./`, it is replaced with the directory
 134    containing the current config file.
 135
 136  * If the pattern does not start with either `~/`, `./` or `/`, `**/`
 137    will be automatically prepended. For example, the pattern `foo/bar`
 138    becomes `**/foo/bar` and would match `/any/path/to/foo/bar`.
 139
 140  * If the pattern ends with `/`, `**` will be automatically added. For
 141    example, the pattern `foo/` becomes `foo/**`. In other words, it
 142    matches "foo" and everything inside, recursively.
 143
 144 `gitdir/i`::
 145         This is the same as `gitdir` except that matching is done
 146         case-insensitively (e.g. on case-insensitive file systems)
 147
 148 `onbranch`::
 149         The data that follows the keyword `onbranch:` is taken to be a
 150         pattern with standard globbing wildcards and two additional
 151         ones, `**/` and `/**`, that can match multiple path components.
 152         If we are in a worktree where the name of the branch that is
 153         currently checked out matches the pattern, the include condition
 154         is met.
 155 +
 156 If the pattern ends with `/`, `**` will be automatically added. For
 157 example, the pattern `foo/` becomes `foo/**`. In other words, it matches
 158 all branches that begin with `foo/`. This is useful if your branches are
 159 organized hierarchically and you would like to apply a configuration to
 160 all the branches in that hierarchy.
 161
 162 A few more notes on matching via `gitdir` and `gitdir/i`:
 163
 164  * Symlinks in `$GIT_DIR` are not resolved before matching.
 165
 166  * Both the symlink & realpath versions of paths will be matched
 167    outside of `$GIT_DIR`. E.g. if ~/git is a symlink to
 168    /mnt/storage/git, both `gitdir:~/git` and `gitdir:/mnt/storage/git`
 169    will match.
 170 +
 171 This was not the case in the initial release of this feature in
 172 v2.13.0, which only matched the realpath version. Configuration that
 173 wants to be compatible with the initial release of this feature needs
 174 to either specify only the realpath version, or both versions.
 175
 176  * Note that "../" is not special and will match literally, which is
 177    unlikely what you want.
 178
 179 Example
 180 ~~~~~~~
 181
 182 ----
 183 # Core variables
 184 [core]
 185         ; Don't trust file modes
 186         filemode = false
 187
 188 # Our diff algorithm
 189 [diff]
 190         external = /usr/local/bin/diff-wrapper
 191         renames = true
 192
 193 [branch "devel"]
 194         remote = origin
 195         merge = refs/heads/devel
 196
 197 # Proxy settings
 198 [core]
 199         gitProxy="ssh" for "kernel.org"
 200         gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest
 201
 202 [include]
 203         path = /path/to/foo.inc ; include by absolute path
 204         path = foo.inc ; find "foo.inc" relative to the current file
 205         path = ~/foo.inc ; find "foo.inc" in your `$HOME` directory
 206
 207 ; include if $GIT_DIR is /path/to/foo/.git
 208 [includeIf "gitdir:/path/to/foo/.git"]
 209         path = /path/to/foo.inc
 210
 211 ; include for all repositories inside /path/to/group
 212 [includeIf "gitdir:/path/to/group/"]
 213         path = /path/to/foo.inc
 214
 215 ; include for all repositories inside $HOME/to/group
 216 [includeIf "gitdir:~/to/group/"]
 217         path = /path/to/foo.inc
 218
 219 ; relative paths are always relative to the including
 220 ; file (if the condition is true); their location is not
 221 ; affected by the condition
 222 [includeIf "gitdir:/path/to/group/"]
 223         path = foo.inc
 224
 225 ; include only if we are in a worktree where foo-branch is
 226 ; currently checked out
 227 [includeIf "onbranch:foo-branch"]
 228         path = foo.inc
 229 ----
 230
 231 Values
 232 ~~~~~~
 233
 234 Values of many variables are treated as a simple string, but there
 235 are variables that take values of specific types and there are rules
 236 as to how to spell them.
 237
 238 boolean::
 239
 240        When a variable is said to take a boolean value, many
 241        synonyms are accepted for 'true' and 'false'; these are all
 242        case-insensitive.
 243
 244         true;; Boolean true literals are `yes`, `on`, `true`,
 245                 and `1`.  Also, a variable defined without `= <value>`
 246                 is taken as true.
 247
 248         false;; Boolean false literals are `no`, `off`, `false`,
 249                 `0` and the empty string.
 250 +
 251 When converting a value to its canonical form using the `--type=bool` type
 252 specifier, 'git config' will ensure that the output is "true" or
 253 "false" (spelled in lowercase).
 254
 255 integer::
 256        The value for many variables that specify various sizes can
 257        be suffixed with `k`, `M`,... to mean "scale the number by
 258        1024", "by 1024x1024", etc.
 259
 260 color::
 261        The value for a variable that takes a color is a list of
 262        colors (at most two, one for foreground and one for background)
 263        and attributes (as many as you want), separated by spaces.
 264 +
 265 The basic colors accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`,
 266 `blue`, `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`.  The first color given is the
 267 foreground; the second is the background.  All the basic colors except
 268 `normal` have a bright variant that can be specified by prefixing the
 269 color with `bright`, like `brightred`.
 270 +
 271 Colors may also be given as numbers between 0 and 255; these use ANSI
 272 256-color mode (but note that not all terminals may support this).  If
 273 your terminal supports it, you may also specify 24-bit RGB values as
 274 hex, like `#ff0ab3`.
 275 +
 276 The accepted attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`, `blink`, `reverse`,
 277 `italic`, and `strike` (for crossed-out or "strikethrough" letters).
 278 The position of any attributes with respect to the colors
 279 (before, after, or in between), doesn't matter. Specific attributes may
 280 be turned off by prefixing them with `no` or `no-` (e.g., `noreverse`,
 281 `no-ul`, etc).
 282 +
 283 An empty color string produces no color effect at all. This can be used
 284 to avoid coloring specific elements without disabling color entirely.
 285 +
 286 For git's pre-defined color slots, the attributes are meant to be reset
 287 at the beginning of each item in the colored output. So setting
 288 `color.decorate.branch` to `black` will paint that branch name in a
 289 plain `black`, even if the previous thing on the same output line (e.g.
 290 opening parenthesis before the list of branch names in `log --decorate`
 291 output) is set to be painted with `bold` or some other attribute.
 292 However, custom log formats may do more complicated and layered
 293 coloring, and the negated forms may be useful there.
 294
 295 pathname::
 296         A variable that takes a pathname value can be given a
 297         string that begins with "`~/`" or "`~user/`", and the usual
 298         tilde expansion happens to such a string: `~/`
 299         is expanded to the value of `$HOME`, and `~user/` to the
 300         specified user's home directory.
 301 +
 302 If a path starts with `%(prefix)/`, the remainder is interpreted as a
 303 path relative to Git's "runtime prefix", i.e. relative to the location
 304 where Git itself was installed. For example, `%(prefix)/bin/` refers to
 305 the directory in which the Git executable itself lives. If Git was
 306 compiled without runtime prefix support, the compiled-in prefix will be
 307 substituted instead. In the unlikely event that a literal path needs to
 308 be specified that should _not_ be expanded, it needs to be prefixed by
 309 `./`, like so: `./%(prefix)/bin`.
 310
 311
 312 Variables
 313 ~~~~~~~~~
 314
 315 Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete.
 316 For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description
 317 in the appropriate manual page.
 318
 319 Other git-related tools may and do use their own variables.  When
 320 inventing new variables for use in your own tool, make sure their
 321 names do not conflict with those that are used by Git itself and
 322 other popular tools, and describe them in your documentation.
 323
 324 include::config/advice.txt[]
 325
 326 include::config/core.txt[]
 327
 328 include::config/add.txt[]
 329
 330 include::config/alias.txt[]
 331
 332 include::config/am.txt[]
 333
 334 include::config/apply.txt[]
 335
 336 include::config/blame.txt[]
 337
 338 include::config/branch.txt[]
 339
 340 include::config/browser.txt[]
 341
 342 include::config/checkout.txt[]
 343
 344 include::config/clean.txt[]
 345
 346 include::config/clone.txt[]
 347
 348 include::config/color.txt[]
 349
 350 include::config/column.txt[]
 351
 352 include::config/commit.txt[]
 353
 354 include::config/commitgraph.txt[]
 355
 356 include::config/credential.txt[]
 357
 358 include::config/completion.txt[]
 359
 360 include::config/diff.txt[]
 361
 362 include::config/difftool.txt[]
 363
 364 include::config/extensions.txt[]
 365
 366 include::config/fastimport.txt[]
 367
 368 include::config/feature.txt[]
 369
 370 include::config/fetch.txt[]
 371
 372 include::config/format.txt[]
 373
 374 include::config/filter.txt[]
 375
 376 include::config/fsck.txt[]
 377
 378 include::config/gc.txt[]
 379
 380 include::config/gitcvs.txt[]
 381
 382 include::config/gitweb.txt[]
 383
 384 include::config/grep.txt[]
 385
 386 include::config/gpg.txt[]
 387
 388 include::config/gui.txt[]
 389
 390 include::config/guitool.txt[]
 391
 392 include::config/help.txt[]
 393
 394 include::config/http.txt[]
 395
 396 include::config/i18n.txt[]
 397
 398 include::config/imap.txt[]
 399
 400 include::config/index.txt[]
 401
 402 include::config/init.txt[]
 403
 404 include::config/instaweb.txt[]
 405
 406 include::config/interactive.txt[]
 407
 408 include::config/log.txt[]
 409
 410 include::config/lsrefs.txt[]
 411
 412 include::config/mailinfo.txt[]
 413
 414 include::config/mailmap.txt[]
 415
 416 include::config/maintenance.txt[]
 417
 418 include::config/man.txt[]
 419
 420 include::config/merge.txt[]
 421
 422 include::config/mergetool.txt[]
 423
 424 include::config/notes.txt[]
 425
 426 include::config/pack.txt[]
 427
 428 include::config/pager.txt[]
 429
 430 include::config/pretty.txt[]
 431
 432 include::config/protocol.txt[]
 433
 434 include::config/pull.txt[]
 435
 436 include::config/push.txt[]
 437
 438 include::config/rebase.txt[]
 439
 440 include::config/receive.txt[]
 441
 442 include::config/remote.txt[]
 443
 444 include::config/remotes.txt[]
 445
 446 include::config/repack.txt[]
 447
 448 include::config/rerere.txt[]
 449
 450 include::config/reset.txt[]
 451
 452 include::config/sendemail.txt[]
 453
 454 include::config/sequencer.txt[]
 455
 456 include::config/showbranch.txt[]
 457
 458 include::config/splitindex.txt[]
 459
 460 include::config/ssh.txt[]
 461
 462 include::config/status.txt[]
 463
 464 include::config/stash.txt[]
 465
 466 include::config/submodule.txt[]
 467
 468 include::config/tag.txt[]
 469
 470 include::config/tar.txt[]
 471
 472 include::config/trace2.txt[]
 473
 474 include::config/transfer.txt[]
 475
 476 include::config/uploadarchive.txt[]
 477
 478 include::config/uploadpack.txt[]
 479
 480 include::config/url.txt[]
 481
 482 include::config/user.txt[]
 483
 484 include::config/versionsort.txt[]
 485
 486 include::config/web.txt[]
 487
 488 include::config/worktree.txt[]