1CONFIGURATION FILE 2------------------ 3 4The Git configuration file contains a number of variables that affect 5the Git commands' behavior. The `.git/config` file in each repository 6is used to store the configuration for that repository, and 7`$HOME/.gitconfig` is used to store a per-user configuration as 8fallback values for the `.git/config` file. The file `/etc/gitconfig` 9can be used to store a system-wide default configuration. 10 11The configuration variables are used by both the Git plumbing 12and the porcelains. The variables are divided into sections, wherein 13the fully qualified variable name of the variable itself is the last 14dot-separated segment and the section name is everything before the last 15dot. The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric 16characters and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character. Some 17variables may appear multiple times; we say then that the variable is 18multivalued. 19 20Syntax 21~~~~~~ 22 23The syntax is fairly flexible and permissive; whitespaces are mostly 24ignored. The '#' and ';' characters begin comments to the end of line, 25blank lines are ignored. 26 27The file consists of sections and variables. A section begins with 28the name of the section in square brackets and continues until the next 29section begins. Section names are case-insensitive. Only alphanumeric 30characters, `-` and `.` are allowed in section names. Each variable 31must belong to some section, which means that there must be a section 32header before the first setting of a variable. 33 34Sections can be further divided into subsections. To begin a subsection 35put its name in double quotes, separated by space from the section name, 36in the section header, like in the example below: 37 38-------- 39 [section "subsection"] 40 41-------- 42 43Subsection names are case sensitive and can contain any characters except 44newline and the null byte. Doublequote `"` and backslash can be included 45by escaping them as `\"` and `\\`, respectively. Backslashes preceding 46other characters are dropped when reading; for example, `\t` is read as 47`t` and `\0` is read as `0` Section headers cannot span multiple lines. 48Variables may belong directly to a section or to a given subsection. You 49can have `[section]` if you have `[section "subsection"]`, but you don't 50need to. 51 52There is also a deprecated `[section.subsection]` syntax. With this 53syntax, the subsection name is converted to lower-case and is also 54compared case sensitively. These subsection names follow the same 55restrictions as section names. 56 57All the other lines (and the remainder of the line after the section 58header) are recognized as setting variables, in the form 59'name = value' (or just 'name', which is a short-hand to say that 60the variable is the boolean "true"). 61The variable names are case-insensitive, allow only alphanumeric characters 62and `-`, and must start with an alphabetic character. 63 64A line that defines a value can be continued to the next line by 65ending it with a `\`; the backquote and the end-of-line are 66stripped. Leading whitespaces after 'name =', the remainder of the 67line after the first comment character '#' or ';', and trailing 68whitespaces of the line are discarded unless they are enclosed in 69double quotes. Internal whitespaces within the value are retained 70verbatim. 71 72Inside double quotes, double quote `"` and backslash `\` characters 73must be escaped: use `\"` for `"` and `\\` for `\`. 74 75The following escape sequences (beside `\"` and `\\`) are recognized: 76`\n` for newline character (NL), `\t` for horizontal tabulation (HT, TAB) 77and `\b` for backspace (BS). Other char escape sequences (including octal 78escape sequences) are invalid. 79 80 81Includes 82~~~~~~~~ 83 84The `include` and `includeIf` sections allow you to include config 85directives from another source. These sections behave identically to 86each other with the exception that `includeIf` sections may be ignored 87if their condition does not evaluate to true; see "Conditional includes" 88below. 89 90You can include a config file from another by setting the special 91`include.path` (or `includeIf.*.path`) variable to the name of the file 92to be included. The variable takes a pathname as its value, and is 93subject to tilde expansion. These variables can be given multiple times. 94 95The contents of the included file are inserted immediately, as if they 96had been found at the location of the include directive. If the value of the 97variable is a relative path, the path is considered to 98be relative to the configuration file in which the include directive 99was found. See below for examples. 100 101Conditional includes 102~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 103 104You can include a config file from another conditionally by setting a 105`includeIf.<condition>.path` variable to the name of the file to be 106included. 107 108The condition starts with a keyword followed by a colon and some data 109whose format and meaning depends on the keyword. Supported keywords 110are: 111 112`gitdir`:: 113 114 The data that follows the keyword `gitdir:` is used as a glob 115 pattern. If the location of the .git directory matches the 116 pattern, the include condition is met. 117+ 118The .git location may be auto-discovered, or come from `$GIT_DIR` 119environment variable. If the repository is auto discovered via a .git 120file (e.g. from submodules, or a linked worktree), the .git location 121would be the final location where the .git directory is, not where the 122.git file is. 123+ 124The pattern can contain standard globbing wildcards and two additional 125ones, `**/` and `/**`, that can match multiple path components. Please 126refer to linkgit:gitignore[5] for details. For convenience: 127 128 * If the pattern starts with `~/`, `~` will be substituted with the 129 content of the environment variable `HOME`. 130 131 * If the pattern starts with `./`, it is replaced with the directory 132 containing the current config file. 133 134 * If the pattern does not start with either `~/`, `./` or `/`, `**/` 135 will be automatically prepended. For example, the pattern `foo/bar` 136 becomes `**/foo/bar` and would match `/any/path/to/foo/bar`. 137 138 * If the pattern ends with `/`, `**` will be automatically added. For 139 example, the pattern `foo/` becomes `foo/**`. In other words, it 140 matches "foo" and everything inside, recursively. 141 142`gitdir/i`:: 143 This is the same as `gitdir` except that matching is done 144 case-insensitively (e.g. on case-insensitive file sytems) 145 146A few more notes on matching via `gitdir` and `gitdir/i`: 147 148 * Symlinks in `$GIT_DIR` are not resolved before matching. 149 150 * Both the symlink & realpath versions of paths will be matched 151 outside of `$GIT_DIR`. E.g. if ~/git is a symlink to 152 /mnt/storage/git, both `gitdir:~/git` and `gitdir:/mnt/storage/git` 153 will match. 154+ 155This was not the case in the initial release of this feature in 156v2.13.0, which only matched the realpath version. Configuration that 157wants to be compatible with the initial release of this feature needs 158to either specify only the realpath version, or both versions. 159 160 * Note that "../" is not special and will match literally, which is 161 unlikely what you want. 162 163Example 164~~~~~~~ 165 166 # Core variables 167 [core] 168 ; Don't trust file modes 169 filemode = false 170 171 # Our diff algorithm 172 [diff] 173 external = /usr/local/bin/diff-wrapper 174 renames = true 175 176 [branch "devel"] 177 remote = origin 178 merge = refs/heads/devel 179 180 # Proxy settings 181 [core] 182 gitProxy="ssh" for "kernel.org" 183 gitProxy=default-proxy ; for the rest 184 185 [include] 186 path = /path/to/foo.inc ; include by absolute path 187 path = foo.inc ; find "foo.inc" relative to the current file 188 path = ~/foo.inc ; find "foo.inc" in your `$HOME` directory 189 190 ; include if $GIT_DIR is /path/to/foo/.git 191 [includeIf "gitdir:/path/to/foo/.git"] 192 path = /path/to/foo.inc 193 194 ; include for all repositories inside /path/to/group 195 [includeIf "gitdir:/path/to/group/"] 196 path = /path/to/foo.inc 197 198 ; include for all repositories inside $HOME/to/group 199 [includeIf "gitdir:~/to/group/"] 200 path = /path/to/foo.inc 201 202 ; relative paths are always relative to the including 203 ; file (if the condition is true); their location is not 204 ; affected by the condition 205 [includeIf "gitdir:/path/to/group/"] 206 path = foo.inc 207 208Values 209~~~~~~ 210 211Values of many variables are treated as a simple string, but there 212are variables that take values of specific types and there are rules 213as to how to spell them. 214 215boolean:: 216 217 When a variable is said to take a boolean value, many 218 synonyms are accepted for 'true' and 'false'; these are all 219 case-insensitive. 220 221 true;; Boolean true literals are `yes`, `on`, `true`, 222 and `1`. Also, a variable defined without `= <value>` 223 is taken as true. 224 225 false;; Boolean false literals are `no`, `off`, `false`, 226 `0` and the empty string. 227+ 228When converting a value to its canonical form using the `--type=bool` type 229specifier, 'git config' will ensure that the output is "true" or 230"false" (spelled in lowercase). 231 232integer:: 233 The value for many variables that specify various sizes can 234 be suffixed with `k`, `M`,... to mean "scale the number by 235 1024", "by 1024x1024", etc. 236 237color:: 238 The value for a variable that takes a color is a list of 239 colors (at most two, one for foreground and one for background) 240 and attributes (as many as you want), separated by spaces. 241+ 242The basic colors accepted are `normal`, `black`, `red`, `green`, `yellow`, 243`blue`, `magenta`, `cyan` and `white`. The first color given is the 244foreground; the second is the background. 245+ 246Colors may also be given as numbers between 0 and 255; these use ANSI 247256-color mode (but note that not all terminals may support this). If 248your terminal supports it, you may also specify 24-bit RGB values as 249hex, like `#ff0ab3`. 250+ 251The accepted attributes are `bold`, `dim`, `ul`, `blink`, `reverse`, 252`italic`, and `strike` (for crossed-out or "strikethrough" letters). 253The position of any attributes with respect to the colors 254(before, after, or in between), doesn't matter. Specific attributes may 255be turned off by prefixing them with `no` or `no-` (e.g., `noreverse`, 256`no-ul`, etc). 257+ 258An empty color string produces no color effect at all. This can be used 259to avoid coloring specific elements without disabling color entirely. 260+ 261For git's pre-defined color slots, the attributes are meant to be reset 262at the beginning of each item in the colored output. So setting 263`color.decorate.branch` to `black` will paint that branch name in a 264plain `black`, even if the previous thing on the same output line (e.g. 265opening parenthesis before the list of branch names in `log --decorate` 266output) is set to be painted with `bold` or some other attribute. 267However, custom log formats may do more complicated and layered 268coloring, and the negated forms may be useful there. 269 270pathname:: 271 A variable that takes a pathname value can be given a 272 string that begins with "`~/`" or "`~user/`", and the usual 273 tilde expansion happens to such a string: `~/` 274 is expanded to the value of `$HOME`, and `~user/` to the 275 specified user's home directory. 276 277 278Variables 279~~~~~~~~~ 280 281Note that this list is non-comprehensive and not necessarily complete. 282For command-specific variables, you will find a more detailed description 283in the appropriate manual page. 284 285Other git-related tools may and do use their own variables. When 286inventing new variables for use in your own tool, make sure their 287names do not conflict with those that are used by Git itself and 288other popular tools, and describe them in your documentation. 289 290include::config/advice.txt[] 291 292include::config/core.txt[] 293 294include::config/add.txt[] 295 296include::config/alias.txt[] 297 298include::config/am.txt[] 299 300include::config/apply.txt[] 301 302include::config/blame.txt[] 303 304include::config/branch.txt[] 305 306include::config/browser.txt[] 307 308include::config/checkout.txt[] 309 310include::config/clean.txt[] 311 312include::config/color.txt[] 313 314include::config/column.txt[] 315 316include::config/commit.txt[] 317 318include::config/credential.txt[] 319 320include::config/completion.txt[] 321 322include::config/diff.txt[] 323 324include::config/difftool.txt[] 325 326include::config/fastimport.txt[] 327 328include::config/fetch.txt[] 329 330include::config/format.txt[] 331 332include::config/filter.txt[] 333 334include::config/fsck.txt[] 335 336include::config/gc.txt[] 337 338include::config/gitcvs.txt[] 339 340include::config/gitweb.txt[] 341 342include::config/grep.txt[] 343 344include::config/gpg.txt[] 345 346include::config/gui.txt[] 347 348include::config/guitool.txt[] 349 350include::config/help.txt[] 351 352include::config/http.txt[] 353 354include::config/i18n.txt[] 355 356include::config/imap.txt[] 357 358include::config/index.txt[] 359 360include::config/init.txt[] 361 362include::config/instaweb.txt[] 363 364include::config/interactive.txt[] 365 366include::config/log.txt[] 367 368include::config/mailinfo.txt[] 369 370include::config/mailmap.txt[] 371 372include::config/man.txt[] 373 374include::config/merge.txt[] 375 376include::config/mergetool.txt[] 377 378include::config/notes.txt[] 379 380include::config/pack.txt[] 381 382include::config/pager.txt[] 383 384include::config/pretty.txt[] 385 386include::config/protocol.txt[] 387 388include::config/pull.txt[] 389 390include::config/push.txt[] 391 392include::config/rebase.txt[] 393 394include::config/receive.txt[] 395 396include::config/remote.txt[] 397 398include::config/remotes.txt[] 399 400include::config/repack.txt[] 401 402include::config/rerere.txt[] 403 404include::config/reset.txt[] 405 406include::config/sendemail.txt[] 407 408include::config/sequencer.txt[] 409 410include::config/showbranch.txt[] 411 412include::config/splitindex.txt[] 413 414include::config/ssh.txt[] 415 416include::config/status.txt[] 417 418include::config/stash.txt[] 419 420include::config/submodule.txt[] 421 422include::config/tag.txt[] 423 424transfer.fsckObjects:: 425 When `fetch.fsckObjects` or `receive.fsckObjects` are 426 not set, the value of this variable is used instead. 427 Defaults to false. 428+ 429When set, the fetch or receive will abort in the case of a malformed 430object or a link to a nonexistent object. In addition, various other 431issues are checked for, including legacy issues (see `fsck.<msg-id>`), 432and potential security issues like the existence of a `.GIT` directory 433or a malicious `.gitmodules` file (see the release notes for v2.2.1 434and v2.17.1 for details). Other sanity and security checks may be 435added in future releases. 436+ 437On the receiving side, failing fsckObjects will make those objects 438unreachable, see "QUARANTINE ENVIRONMENT" in 439linkgit:git-receive-pack[1]. On the fetch side, malformed objects will 440instead be left unreferenced in the repository. 441+ 442Due to the non-quarantine nature of the `fetch.fsckObjects` 443implementation it can not be relied upon to leave the object store 444clean like `receive.fsckObjects` can. 445+ 446As objects are unpacked they're written to the object store, so there 447can be cases where malicious objects get introduced even though the 448"fetch" failed, only to have a subsequent "fetch" succeed because only 449new incoming objects are checked, not those that have already been 450written to the object store. That difference in behavior should not be 451relied upon. In the future, such objects may be quarantined for 452"fetch" as well. 453+ 454For now, the paranoid need to find some way to emulate the quarantine 455environment if they'd like the same protection as "push". E.g. in the 456case of an internal mirror do the mirroring in two steps, one to fetch 457the untrusted objects, and then do a second "push" (which will use the 458quarantine) to another internal repo, and have internal clients 459consume this pushed-to repository, or embargo internal fetches and 460only allow them once a full "fsck" has run (and no new fetches have 461happened in the meantime). 462 463transfer.hideRefs:: 464 String(s) `receive-pack` and `upload-pack` use to decide which 465 refs to omit from their initial advertisements. Use more than 466 one definition to specify multiple prefix strings. A ref that is 467 under the hierarchies listed in the value of this variable is 468 excluded, and is hidden when responding to `git push` or `git 469 fetch`. See `receive.hideRefs` and `uploadpack.hideRefs` for 470 program-specific versions of this config. 471+ 472You may also include a `!` in front of the ref name to negate the entry, 473explicitly exposing it, even if an earlier entry marked it as hidden. 474If you have multiple hideRefs values, later entries override earlier ones 475(and entries in more-specific config files override less-specific ones). 476+ 477If a namespace is in use, the namespace prefix is stripped from each 478reference before it is matched against `transfer.hiderefs` patterns. 479For example, if `refs/heads/master` is specified in `transfer.hideRefs` and 480the current namespace is `foo`, then `refs/namespaces/foo/refs/heads/master` 481is omitted from the advertisements but `refs/heads/master` and 482`refs/namespaces/bar/refs/heads/master` are still advertised as so-called 483"have" lines. In order to match refs before stripping, add a `^` in front of 484the ref name. If you combine `!` and `^`, `!` must be specified first. 485+ 486Even if you hide refs, a client may still be able to steal the target 487objects via the techniques described in the "SECURITY" section of the 488linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] man page; it's best to keep private data in a 489separate repository. 490 491transfer.unpackLimit:: 492 When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are 493 not set, the value of this variable is used instead. 494 The default value is 100. 495 496uploadarchive.allowUnreachable:: 497 If true, allow clients to use `git archive --remote` to request 498 any tree, whether reachable from the ref tips or not. See the 499 discussion in the "SECURITY" section of 500 linkgit:git-upload-archive[1] for more details. Defaults to 501 `false`. 502 503uploadpack.hideRefs:: 504 This variable is the same as `transfer.hideRefs`, but applies 505 only to `upload-pack` (and so affects only fetches, not pushes). 506 An attempt to fetch a hidden ref by `git fetch` will fail. See 507 also `uploadpack.allowTipSHA1InWant`. 508 509uploadpack.allowTipSHA1InWant:: 510 When `uploadpack.hideRefs` is in effect, allow `upload-pack` 511 to accept a fetch request that asks for an object at the tip 512 of a hidden ref (by default, such a request is rejected). 513 See also `uploadpack.hideRefs`. Even if this is false, a client 514 may be able to steal objects via the techniques described in the 515 "SECURITY" section of the linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] man page; it's 516 best to keep private data in a separate repository. 517 518uploadpack.allowReachableSHA1InWant:: 519 Allow `upload-pack` to accept a fetch request that asks for an 520 object that is reachable from any ref tip. However, note that 521 calculating object reachability is computationally expensive. 522 Defaults to `false`. Even if this is false, a client may be able 523 to steal objects via the techniques described in the "SECURITY" 524 section of the linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] man page; it's best to 525 keep private data in a separate repository. 526 527uploadpack.allowAnySHA1InWant:: 528 Allow `upload-pack` to accept a fetch request that asks for any 529 object at all. 530 Defaults to `false`. 531 532uploadpack.keepAlive:: 533 When `upload-pack` has started `pack-objects`, there may be a 534 quiet period while `pack-objects` prepares the pack. Normally 535 it would output progress information, but if `--quiet` was used 536 for the fetch, `pack-objects` will output nothing at all until 537 the pack data begins. Some clients and networks may consider 538 the server to be hung and give up. Setting this option instructs 539 `upload-pack` to send an empty keepalive packet every 540 `uploadpack.keepAlive` seconds. Setting this option to 0 541 disables keepalive packets entirely. The default is 5 seconds. 542 543uploadpack.packObjectsHook:: 544 If this option is set, when `upload-pack` would run 545 `git pack-objects` to create a packfile for a client, it will 546 run this shell command instead. The `pack-objects` command and 547 arguments it _would_ have run (including the `git pack-objects` 548 at the beginning) are appended to the shell command. The stdin 549 and stdout of the hook are treated as if `pack-objects` itself 550 was run. I.e., `upload-pack` will feed input intended for 551 `pack-objects` to the hook, and expects a completed packfile on 552 stdout. 553+ 554Note that this configuration variable is ignored if it is seen in the 555repository-level config (this is a safety measure against fetching from 556untrusted repositories). 557 558uploadpack.allowFilter:: 559 If this option is set, `upload-pack` will support partial 560 clone and partial fetch object filtering. 561 562uploadpack.allowRefInWant:: 563 If this option is set, `upload-pack` will support the `ref-in-want` 564 feature of the protocol version 2 `fetch` command. This feature 565 is intended for the benefit of load-balanced servers which may 566 not have the same view of what OIDs their refs point to due to 567 replication delay. 568 569url.<base>.insteadOf:: 570 Any URL that starts with this value will be rewritten to 571 start, instead, with <base>. In cases where some site serves a 572 large number of repositories, and serves them with multiple 573 access methods, and some users need to use different access 574 methods, this feature allows people to specify any of the 575 equivalent URLs and have Git automatically rewrite the URL to 576 the best alternative for the particular user, even for a 577 never-before-seen repository on the site. When more than one 578 insteadOf strings match a given URL, the longest match is used. 579+ 580Note that any protocol restrictions will be applied to the rewritten 581URL. If the rewrite changes the URL to use a custom protocol or remote 582helper, you may need to adjust the `protocol.*.allow` config to permit 583the request. In particular, protocols you expect to use for submodules 584must be set to `always` rather than the default of `user`. See the 585description of `protocol.allow` above. 586 587url.<base>.pushInsteadOf:: 588 Any URL that starts with this value will not be pushed to; 589 instead, it will be rewritten to start with <base>, and the 590 resulting URL will be pushed to. In cases where some site serves 591 a large number of repositories, and serves them with multiple 592 access methods, some of which do not allow push, this feature 593 allows people to specify a pull-only URL and have Git 594 automatically use an appropriate URL to push, even for a 595 never-before-seen repository on the site. When more than one 596 pushInsteadOf strings match a given URL, the longest match is 597 used. If a remote has an explicit pushurl, Git will ignore this 598 setting for that remote. 599 600user.email:: 601 Your email address to be recorded in any newly created commits. 602 Can be overridden by the `GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL`, `GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL`, and 603 `EMAIL` environment variables. See linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]. 604 605user.name:: 606 Your full name to be recorded in any newly created commits. 607 Can be overridden by the `GIT_AUTHOR_NAME` and `GIT_COMMITTER_NAME` 608 environment variables. See linkgit:git-commit-tree[1]. 609 610user.useConfigOnly:: 611 Instruct Git to avoid trying to guess defaults for `user.email` 612 and `user.name`, and instead retrieve the values only from the 613 configuration. For example, if you have multiple email addresses 614 and would like to use a different one for each repository, then 615 with this configuration option set to `true` in the global config 616 along with a name, Git will prompt you to set up an email before 617 making new commits in a newly cloned repository. 618 Defaults to `false`. 619 620user.signingKey:: 621 If linkgit:git-tag[1] or linkgit:git-commit[1] is not selecting the 622 key you want it to automatically when creating a signed tag or 623 commit, you can override the default selection with this variable. 624 This option is passed unchanged to gpg's --local-user parameter, 625 so you may specify a key using any method that gpg supports. 626 627versionsort.prereleaseSuffix (deprecated):: 628 Deprecated alias for `versionsort.suffix`. Ignored if 629 `versionsort.suffix` is set. 630 631versionsort.suffix:: 632 Even when version sort is used in linkgit:git-tag[1], tagnames 633 with the same base version but different suffixes are still sorted 634 lexicographically, resulting e.g. in prerelease tags appearing 635 after the main release (e.g. "1.0-rc1" after "1.0"). This 636 variable can be specified to determine the sorting order of tags 637 with different suffixes. 638+ 639By specifying a single suffix in this variable, any tagname containing 640that suffix will appear before the corresponding main release. E.g. if 641the variable is set to "-rc", then all "1.0-rcX" tags will appear before 642"1.0". If specified multiple times, once per suffix, then the order of 643suffixes in the configuration will determine the sorting order of tagnames 644with those suffixes. E.g. if "-pre" appears before "-rc" in the 645configuration, then all "1.0-preX" tags will be listed before any 646"1.0-rcX" tags. The placement of the main release tag relative to tags 647with various suffixes can be determined by specifying the empty suffix 648among those other suffixes. E.g. if the suffixes "-rc", "", "-ck" and 649"-bfs" appear in the configuration in this order, then all "v4.8-rcX" tags 650are listed first, followed by "v4.8", then "v4.8-ckX" and finally 651"v4.8-bfsX". 652+ 653If more than one suffixes match the same tagname, then that tagname will 654be sorted according to the suffix which starts at the earliest position in 655the tagname. If more than one different matching suffixes start at 656that earliest position, then that tagname will be sorted according to the 657longest of those suffixes. 658The sorting order between different suffixes is undefined if they are 659in multiple config files. 660 661web.browser:: 662 Specify a web browser that may be used by some commands. 663 Currently only linkgit:git-instaweb[1] and linkgit:git-help[1] 664 may use it. 665 666worktree.guessRemote:: 667 With `add`, if no branch argument, and neither of `-b` nor 668 `-B` nor `--detach` are given, the command defaults to 669 creating a new branch from HEAD. If `worktree.guessRemote` is 670 set to true, `worktree add` tries to find a remote-tracking 671 branch whose name uniquely matches the new branch name. If 672 such a branch exists, it is checked out and set as "upstream" 673 for the new branch. If no such match can be found, it falls 674 back to creating a new branch from the current HEAD.