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