Documentation/config.txt

   1 CONFIGURATION FILE
   2 ------------------
   3
   4 The git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect
   5 the git command's behavior. They can be used by both the git plumbing
   6 and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, where
   7 in the fully qualified variable name the variable itself is the last
   8 dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last
   9 dot. The variable names are case-insensitive and only alphanumeric
  10 characters are allowed. Some variables may appear multiple times.
  11
  12 The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly
  13 ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line,
  14 blank lines are ignored, lines containing strings enclosed in square
  15 brackets start sections and all the other lines are recognized
  16 as setting variables, in the form 'name = value'. If there is no equal
  17 sign on the line, the entire line is taken as 'name' and the variable
  18 is recognized as boolean "true". String values may be entirely or partially
  19 enclosed in double quotes; some variables may require special value format.
  20
  21 Example
  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
  34 Variables
  35 ~~~~~~~~~
  36
  37 Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete.
  38 For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description
  39 in the appropriate manual page. You will find a description of non-core
  40 porcelain configuration variables in the respective porcelain documentation.
  41
  42 core.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
  47 core.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 +
  56 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable
  57 (which always applies universally, without the special "for"
  58 handling).
  59
  60 core.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
  67 core.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
  73 core.logAllRefUpdates::
  74         If true, `git-update-ref` will append a line to
  75         "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>" listing the new SHA1 and the date/time
  76         of the update.  If the file does not exist it will be
  77         created automatically.  This information can be used to
  78         determine what commit was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
  79         This value is false by default (no logging).
  80
  81 core.repositoryFormatVersion::
  82         Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
  83         version.
  84
  85 core.sharedRepository::
  86         When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
  87         several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
  88         group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
  89         repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
  90         group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
  91         reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init-db[1]. False by default.
  92
  93 core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
  94         If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
  95         and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
  96
  97 core.compression::
  98         An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
  99         are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
 100         compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
 101         slowest.
 102
 103 core.legacyheaders::
 104         A boolean which enables the legacy object header format in case
 105         you want to interoperate with old clients accessing the object
 106         database directly (where the "http://" and "rsync://" protocols
 107         count as direct access).
 108
 109 alias.*::
 110         Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
 111         after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
 112         "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
 113         confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
 114         hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
 115         spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
 116         quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
 117
 118 apply.whitespace::
 119         Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
 120         as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
 121
 122 branch.<name>.remote::
 123         When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
 124
 125 branch.<name>.merge::
 126         When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default remote branch
 127         to be merged.
 128
 129 pager.color::
 130         A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
 131         use (default is true).
 132
 133 diff.color::
 134         When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
 135         When false (or `never`), never.  When set to `auto`, use
 136         colors only when the output is to the terminal.
 137
 138 diff.color.<slot>::
 139         Use customized color for diff colorization.  `<slot>`
 140         specifies which part of the patch to use the specified
 141         color, and is one of `plain` (context text), `meta`
 142         (metainformation), `frag` (hunk header), `old` (removed
 143         lines), or `new` (added lines).  The value for these
 144         configuration variables can be one of: `normal`, `bold`,
 145         `dim`, `ul`, `blink`, `reverse`, `reset`, `black`,
 146         `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`, `magenta`, `cyan`, or
 147         `white`.
 148
 149 diff.renameLimit::
 150         The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
 151         detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
 152
 153 diff.renames::
 154         Tells git to detect renames.  If set to any boolean value, it
 155         will enable basic rename detection.  If set to "copies" or
 156         "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
 157
 158 format.headers::
 159         Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
 160         by mail.  See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
 161
 162 gitcvs.enabled::
 163         Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository.
 164         See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 165
 166 gitcvs.logfile::
 167         Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs
 168         various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
 169
 170 http.sslVerify::
 171         Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 172         over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
 173         variable.
 174
 175 http.sslCert::
 176         File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
 177         over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
 178         variable.
 179
 180 http.sslKey::
 181         File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
 182         over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
 183         variable.
 184
 185 http.sslCAInfo::
 186         File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
 187         fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
 188         'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
 189
 190 http.sslCAPath::
 191         Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
 192         with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
 193         by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
 194
 195 http.maxRequests::
 196         How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
 197         by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
 198
 199 http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
 200         If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
 201         for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
 202         Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
 203         'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
 204
 205 http.noEPSV::
 206         A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
 207         This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't
 208         support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
 209         environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
 210
 211 i18n.commitEncoding::
 212         Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
 213         does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
 214         importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
 215         browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
 216         porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
 217
 218 merge.summary::
 219         Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
 220         merge commit messages. False by default.
 221
 222 pack.window::
 223         The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
 224         window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
 225
 226 pull.octopus::
 227         The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
 228         at once.
 229
 230 pull.twohead::
 231         The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
 232
 233 repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
 234         Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
 235         delta-base offset.  Defaults to false.
 236
 237 show.difftree::
 238         The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 239         for gitlink:git-show[1].
 240
 241 showbranch.default::
 242         The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 243         See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
 244
 245 status.color::
 246         A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
 247         gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
 248         `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
 249         only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
 250
 251 status.color.<slot>::
 252         Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
 253         one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
 254         `updated` (files which are updated but not committed),
 255         `changed` (files which are changed but not updated in the index),
 256         or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
 257         these variables may be specified as in diff.color.<slot>.
 258
 259 tar.umask::
 260         By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
 261         to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
 262         such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
 263         With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
 264         gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
 265         The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
 266         be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
 267         the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
 268         value remains 0, which means world read-write.
 269
 270 user.email::
 271         Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 272         Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
 273         environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 274
 275 user.name::
 276         Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
 277         Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
 278         environment variables.  See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
 279
 280 whatchanged.difftree::
 281         The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
 282         for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
 283
 284 imap::
 285         The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
 286         in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
 287
 288 receive.denyNonFastforwads::
 289         If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
 290         not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
 291         even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
 292         set when initializing a shared repository.
 293