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1 CONFIGURATION FILE
2 ------------------
3
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.
10
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.
17
18 Syntax
19 ~~~~~~
20
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.
24
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.
31
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:
35
36 --------
37 [section "subsection"]
38
39 --------
40
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
46 don't need to.
47
48 There is also (case insensitive) alternative `[section.subsection]` syntax.
49 In this syntax subsection names follow the same restrictions as for section
50 name.
51
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.
58
59 Leading and trailing whitespace in a variable value is discarded.
60 Internal whitespace within a variable value is retained verbatim.
61
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".
67
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 '`\`'.
74
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.
79
80 Variable value ending in a '`\`' is continued on the next line in the
81 customary UNIX fashion.
82
83 Some variables may require special value format.
84
85 Example
86 ~~~~~~~
87
88 # Core variables
89 [core]
90 ; Don't trust file modes
91 filemode = false
92
93 # Our diff algorithm
94 [diff]
95 external = "/usr/local/bin/gnu-diff -u"
96 renames = true
97
98 [branch "devel"]
99 remote = origin
100 merge = refs/heads/devel
101
102 # Proxy settings
103 [core]
104 gitProxy="ssh" for "ssh://kernel.org/"
105 gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest
106
107 Variables
108 ~~~~~~~~~
109
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.
114
115 core.fileMode::
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.
119
120 core.symlinks::
121 If false, symbolic links are checked out as small plain files that
122 contain the link text. gitlink:git-update-index[1] and
123 gitlink:git-add[1] will not change the recorded type to regular
124 file. Useful on filesystems like FAT that do not support
125 symbolic links. True by default.
126
127 core.gitProxy::
128 A "proxy command" to execute (as 'command host port') instead
129 of establishing direct connection to the remote server when
130 using the git protocol for fetching. If the variable value is
131 in the "COMMAND for DOMAIN" format, the command is applied only
132 on hostnames ending with the specified domain string. This variable
133 may be set multiple times and is matched in the given order;
134 the first match wins.
135 +
136 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_PROXY_COMMAND' environment variable
137 (which always applies universally, without the special "for"
138 handling).
139
140 core.ignoreStat::
141 The working copy files are assumed to stay unchanged until you
142 mark them otherwise manually - Git will not detect the file changes
143 by lstat() calls. This is useful on systems where those are very
144 slow, such as Microsoft Windows. See gitlink:git-update-index[1].
145 False by default.
146
147 core.preferSymlinkRefs::
148 Instead of the default "symref" format for HEAD
149 and other symbolic reference files, use symbolic links.
150 This is sometimes needed to work with old scripts that
151 expect HEAD to be a symbolic link.
152
153 core.bare::
154 If true this repository is assumed to be 'bare' and has no
155 working directory associated with it. If this is the case a
156 number of commands that require a working directory will be
157 disabled, such as gitlink:git-add[1] or gitlink:git-merge[1].
158 +
159 This setting is automatically guessed by gitlink:git-clone[1] or
160 gitlink:git-init[1] when the repository was created. By default a
161 repository that ends in "/.git" is assumed to be not bare (bare =
162 false), while all other repositories are assumed to be bare (bare
163 = true).
164
165 core.logAllRefUpdates::
166 Updates to a ref <ref> is logged to the file
167 "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>", by appending the new and old
168 SHA1, the date/time and the reason of the update, but
169 only when the file exists. If this configuration
170 variable is set to true, missing "$GIT_DIR/logs/<ref>"
171 file is automatically created for branch heads.
172 +
173 This information can be used to determine what commit
174 was the tip of a branch "2 days ago".
175 +
176 This value is true by default in a repository that has
177 a working directory associated with it, and false by
178 default in a bare repository.
179
180 core.repositoryFormatVersion::
181 Internal variable identifying the repository format and layout
182 version.
183
184 core.sharedRepository::
185 When 'group' (or 'true'), the repository is made shareable between
186 several users in a group (making sure all the files and objects are
187 group-writable). When 'all' (or 'world' or 'everybody'), the
188 repository will be readable by all users, additionally to being
189 group-shareable. When 'umask' (or 'false'), git will use permissions
190 reported by umask(2). See gitlink:git-init[1]. False by default.
191
192 core.warnAmbiguousRefs::
193 If true, git will warn you if the ref name you passed it is ambiguous
194 and might match multiple refs in the .git/refs/ tree. True by default.
195
196 core.compression::
197 An integer -1..9, indicating the compression level for objects that
198 are not in a pack file. -1 is the zlib and git default. 0 means no
199 compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being
200 slowest.
201
202 core.legacyheaders::
203 A boolean which
204 changes the format of loose objects so that they are more
205 efficient to pack and to send out of the repository over git
206 native protocol, since v1.4.2. However, loose objects
207 written in the new format cannot be read by git older than
208 that version; people fetching from your repository using
209 older versions of git over dumb transports (e.g. http)
210 will also be affected.
211 +
212 To let git use the new loose object format, you have to
213 set core.legacyheaders to false.
214
215 core.packedGitWindowSize::
216 Number of bytes of a pack file to map into memory in a
217 single mapping operation. Larger window sizes may allow
218 your system to process a smaller number of large pack files
219 more quickly. Smaller window sizes will negatively affect
220 performance due to increased calls to the operating system's
221 memory manager, but may improve performance when accessing
222 a large number of large pack files.
223 +
224 Default is 1 MiB if NO_MMAP was set at compile time, otherwise 32
225 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 1 GiB on 64 bit platforms. This should
226 be reasonable for all users/operating systems. You probably do
227 not need to adjust this value.
228 +
229 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
230
231 core.packedGitLimit::
232 Maximum number of bytes to map simultaneously into memory
233 from pack files. If Git needs to access more than this many
234 bytes at once to complete an operation it will unmap existing
235 regions to reclaim virtual address space within the process.
236 +
237 Default is 256 MiB on 32 bit platforms and 8 GiB on 64 bit platforms.
238 This should be reasonable for all users/operating systems, except on
239 the largest projects. You probably do not need to adjust this value.
240 +
241 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
242
243 core.deltaBaseCacheLimit::
244 Maximum number of bytes to reserve for caching base objects
245 that multiple deltafied objects reference. By storing the
246 entire decompressed base objects in a cache Git is able
247 to avoid unpacking and decompressing frequently used base
248 objects multiple times.
249 +
250 Default is 16 MiB on all platforms. This should be reasonable
251 for all users/operating systems, except on the largest projects.
252 You probably do not need to adjust this value.
253 +
254 Common unit suffixes of 'k', 'm', or 'g' are supported.
255
256 alias.*::
257 Command aliases for the gitlink:git[1] command wrapper - e.g.
258 after defining "alias.last = cat-file commit HEAD", the invocation
259 "git last" is equivalent to "git cat-file commit HEAD". To avoid
260 confusion and troubles with script usage, aliases that
261 hide existing git commands are ignored. Arguments are split by
262 spaces, the usual shell quoting and escaping is supported.
263 quote pair and a backslash can be used to quote them.
264
265 If the alias expansion is prefixed with an exclamation point,
266 it will be treated as a shell command. For example, defining
267 "alias.new = !gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD", the invocation
268 "git new" is equivalent to running the shell command
269 "gitk --all --not ORIG_HEAD".
270
271 apply.whitespace::
272 Tells `git-apply` how to handle whitespaces, in the same way
273 as the '--whitespace' option. See gitlink:git-apply[1].
274
275 branch.<name>.remote::
276 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` which remote to fetch.
277 If this option is not given, `git fetch` defaults to remote "origin".
278
279 branch.<name>.merge::
280 When in branch <name>, it tells `git fetch` the default refspec to
281 be marked for merging in FETCH_HEAD. The value has exactly to match
282 a remote part of one of the refspecs which are fetched from the remote
283 given by "branch.<name>.remote".
284 The merge information is used by `git pull` (which at first calls
285 `git fetch`) to lookup the default branch for merging. Without
286 this option, `git pull` defaults to merge the first refspec fetched.
287 Specify multiple values to get an octopus merge.
288 If you wish to setup `git pull` so that it merges into <name> from
289 another branch in the local repository, you can point
290 branch.<name>.merge to the desired branch, and use the special setting
291 `.` (a period) for branch.<name>.remote.
292
293 color.branch::
294 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
295 gitlink:git-branch[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
296 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
297 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
298
299 color.branch.<slot>::
300 Use customized color for branch coloration. `<slot>` is one of
301 `current` (the current branch), `local` (a local branch),
302 `remote` (a tracking branch in refs/remotes/), `plain` (other
303 refs).
304 +
305 The value for these configuration variables is a list of colors (at most
306 two) and attributes (at most one), separated by spaces. The colors
307 accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `blue`,
308 `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`; the attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`,
309 `blink` and `reverse`. The first color given is the foreground; the
310 second is the background. The position of the attribute, if any,
311 doesn't matter.
312
313 color.diff::
314 When true (or `always`), always use colors in patch.
315 When false (or `never`), never. When set to `auto`, use
316 colors only when the output is to the terminal.
317
318 color.diff.<slot>::
319 Use customized color for diff colorization. `<slot>` specifies
320 which part of the patch to use the specified color, and is one
321 of `plain` (context text), `meta` (metainformation), `frag`
322 (hunk header), `old` (removed lines), `new` (added lines),
323 `commit` (commit headers), or `whitespace` (highlighting dubious
324 whitespace). The values of these variables may be specified as
325 in color.branch.<slot>.
326
327 color.pager::
328 A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
329 use (default is true).
330
331 color.status::
332 A boolean to enable/disable color in the output of
333 gitlink:git-status[1]. May be set to `true` (or `always`),
334 `false` (or `never`) or `auto`, in which case colors are used
335 only when the output is to a terminal. Defaults to false.
336
337 color.status.<slot>::
338 Use customized color for status colorization. `<slot>` is
339 one of `header` (the header text of the status message),
340 `added` or `updated` (files which are added but not committed),
341 `changed` (files which are changed but not added in the index),
342 or `untracked` (files which are not tracked by git). The values of
343 these variables may be specified as in color.branch.<slot>.
344
345 diff.renameLimit::
346 The number of files to consider when performing the copy/rename
347 detection; equivalent to the git diff option '-l'.
348
349 diff.renames::
350 Tells git to detect renames. If set to any boolean value, it
351 will enable basic rename detection. If set to "copies" or
352 "copy", it will detect copies, as well.
353
354 fetch.unpackLimit::
355 If the number of objects fetched over the git native
356 transfer is below this
357 limit, then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
358 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
359 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
360 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
361 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
362 especially on slow filesystems.
363
364 format.headers::
365 Additional email headers to include in a patch to be submitted
366 by mail. See gitlink:git-format-patch[1].
367
368 format.suffix::
369 The default for format-patch is to output files with the suffix
370 `.patch`. Use this variable to change that suffix (make sure to
371 include the dot if you want it).
372
373 gc.packrefs::
374 `git gc` does not run `git pack-refs` in a bare repository by
375 default so that older dumb-transport clients can still fetch
376 from the repository. Setting this to `true` lets `git
377 gc` to run `git pack-refs`. Setting this to `false` tells
378 `git gc` never to run `git pack-refs`. The default setting is
379 `notbare`. Enable it only when you know you do not have to
380 support such clients. The default setting will change to `true`
381 at some stage, and setting this to `false` will continue to
382 prevent `git pack-refs` from being run from `git gc`.
383
384 gc.reflogexpire::
385 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
386 this time; defaults to 90 days.
387
388 gc.reflogexpireunreachable::
389 `git reflog expire` removes reflog entries older than
390 this time and are not reachable from the current tip;
391 defaults to 30 days.
392
393 gc.rerereresolved::
394 Records of conflicted merge you resolved earlier are
395 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
396 The default is 60 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
397
398 gc.rerereunresolved::
399 Records of conflicted merge you have not resolved are
400 kept for this many days when `git rerere gc` is run.
401 The default is 15 days. See gitlink:git-rerere[1].
402
403 gitcvs.enabled::
404 Whether the cvs pserver interface is enabled for this repository.
405 See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
406
407 gitcvs.logfile::
408 Path to a log file where the cvs pserver interface well... logs
409 various stuff. See gitlink:git-cvsserver[1].
410
411 http.sslVerify::
412 Whether to verify the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
413 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY' environment
414 variable.
415
416 http.sslCert::
417 File containing the SSL certificate when fetching or pushing
418 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_CERT' environment
419 variable.
420
421 http.sslKey::
422 File containing the SSL private key when fetching or pushing
423 over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_SSL_KEY' environment
424 variable.
425
426 http.sslCAInfo::
427 File containing the certificates to verify the peer with when
428 fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden by the
429 'GIT_SSL_CAINFO' environment variable.
430
431 http.sslCAPath::
432 Path containing files with the CA certificates to verify the peer
433 with when fetching or pushing over HTTPS. Can be overridden
434 by the 'GIT_SSL_CAPATH' environment variable.
435
436 http.maxRequests::
437 How many HTTP requests to launch in parallel. Can be overridden
438 by the 'GIT_HTTP_MAX_REQUESTS' environment variable. Default is 5.
439
440 http.lowSpeedLimit, http.lowSpeedTime::
441 If the HTTP transfer speed is less than 'http.lowSpeedLimit'
442 for longer than 'http.lowSpeedTime' seconds, the transfer is aborted.
443 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_LIMIT' and
444 'GIT_HTTP_LOW_SPEED_TIME' environment variables.
445
446 http.noEPSV::
447 A boolean which disables using of EPSV ftp command by curl.
448 This can helpful with some "poor" ftp servers which doesn't
449 support EPSV mode. Can be overridden by the 'GIT_CURL_FTP_NO_EPSV'
450 environment variable. Default is false (curl will use EPSV).
451
452 i18n.commitEncoding::
453 Character encoding the commit messages are stored in; git itself
454 does not care per se, but this information is necessary e.g. when
455 importing commits from emails or in the gitk graphical history
456 browser (and possibly at other places in the future or in other
457 porcelains). See e.g. gitlink:git-mailinfo[1]. Defaults to 'utf-8'.
458
459 i18n.logOutputEncoding::
460 Character encoding the commit messages are converted to when
461 running `git-log` and friends.
462
463 log.showroot::
464 If true, the initial commit will be shown as a big creation event.
465 This is equivalent to a diff against an empty tree.
466 Tools like gitlink:git-log[1] or gitlink:git-whatchanged[1], which
467 normally hide the root commit will now show it. True by default.
468
469 merge.summary::
470 Whether to include summaries of merged commits in newly created
471 merge commit messages. False by default.
472
473 merge.tool::
474 Controls which merge resolution program is used by
475 gitlink:git-mergetool[l]. Valid values are: "kdiff3", "tkdiff",
476 "meld", "xxdiff", "emerge", "vimdiff"
477
478 merge.verbosity::
479 Controls the amount of output shown by the recursive merge
480 strategy. Level 0 outputs nothing except a final error
481 message if conflicts were detected. Level 1 outputs only
482 conflicts, 2 outputs conflicts and file changes. Level 5 and
483 above outputs debugging information. The default is level 2.
484
485 pack.window::
486 The size of the window used by gitlink:git-pack-objects[1] when no
487 window size is given on the command line. Defaults to 10.
488
489 pull.octopus::
490 The default merge strategy to use when pulling multiple branches
491 at once.
492
493 pull.twohead::
494 The default merge strategy to use when pulling a single branch.
495
496 remote.<name>.url::
497 The URL of a remote repository. See gitlink:git-fetch[1] or
498 gitlink:git-push[1].
499
500 remote.<name>.fetch::
501 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-fetch[1]. See
502 gitlink:git-fetch[1].
503
504 remote.<name>.push::
505 The default set of "refspec" for gitlink:git-push[1]. See
506 gitlink:git-push[1].
507
508 remote.<name>.skipDefaultUpdate::
509 If true, this remote will be skipped by default when updating
510 using the remote subcommand of gitlink:git-remote[1].
511
512 remote.<name>.receivepack::
513 The default program to execute on the remote side when pushing. See
514 option \--exec of gitlink:git-push[1].
515
516 remote.<name>.uploadpack::
517 The default program to execute on the remote side when fetching. See
518 option \--exec of gitlink:git-fetch-pack[1].
519
520 remote.<name>.tagopt::
521 Setting this value to --no-tags disables automatic tag following when fetching
522 from remote <name>
523
524 remotes.<group>::
525 The list of remotes which are fetched by "git remote update
526 <group>". See gitlink:git-remote[1].
527
528 repack.usedeltabaseoffset::
529 Allow gitlink:git-repack[1] to create packs that uses
530 delta-base offset. Defaults to false.
531
532 show.difftree::
533 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
534 for gitlink:git-show[1].
535
536 showbranch.default::
537 The default set of branches for gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
538 See gitlink:git-show-branch[1].
539
540 tar.umask::
541 By default, gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] sets file and directories modes
542 to 0666 or 0777. While this is both useful and acceptable for projects
543 such as the Linux Kernel, it might be excessive for other projects.
544 With this variable, it becomes possible to tell
545 gitlink:git-tar-tree[1] to apply a specific umask to the modes above.
546 The special value "user" indicates that the user's current umask will
547 be used. This should be enough for most projects, as it will lead to
548 the same permissions as gitlink:git-checkout[1] would use. The default
549 value remains 0, which means world read-write.
550
551 user.email::
552 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits.
553 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL'
554 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
555
556 user.name::
557 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits.
558 Can be overridden by the 'GIT_AUTHOR_NAME' and 'GIT_COMMITTER_NAME'
559 environment variables. See gitlink:git-commit-tree[1].
560
561 user.signingkey::
562 If gitlink:git-tag[1] is not selecting the key you want it to
563 automatically when creating a signed tag, you can override the
564 default selection with this variable. This option is passed
565 unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, so you may specify a key
566 using any method that gpg supports.
567
568 whatchanged.difftree::
569 The default gitlink:git-diff-tree[1] arguments to be used
570 for gitlink:git-whatchanged[1].
571
572 imap::
573 The configuration variables in the 'imap' section are described
574 in gitlink:git-imap-send[1].
575
576 receive.unpackLimit::
577 If the number of objects received in a push is below this
578 limit then the objects will be unpacked into loose object
579 files. However if the number of received objects equals or
580 exceeds this limit then the received pack will be stored as
581 a pack, after adding any missing delta bases. Storing the
582 pack from a push can make the push operation complete faster,
583 especially on slow filesystems.
584
585 receive.denyNonFastForwards::
586 If set to true, git-receive-pack will deny a ref update which is
587 not a fast forward. Use this to prevent such an update via a push,
588 even if that push is forced. This configuration variable is
589 set when initializing a shared repository.
590
591 transfer.unpackLimit::
592 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are
593 not set, the value of this variable is used instead.
594
595