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Git Configuration

Some recommended settings for a good starting point

Git comes with a tool called git config that lets you get and set configuration variables that control all aspects of how Git looks and operates. These variables can be stored in three different places:

  1. System-wide in the /etc/gitconfig file, which contains settings that are applied to every user on the system and all of their repositories. Pass the --system option to read and write to this file. (Because this is a system configuration file, you would need administrative or superuser privilege to make changes to it.)
  2. User specific in the ~/.gitconfig file, which contains your personal settings and these affect all of the repositories you work with on your system. Pass the --global option to read and write to this file.
  3. Single repository specific in the .git/config file of whatever repository you’re currently using. Pass the --local option to read and write to this file, but this is in fact the default. (Unsurprisingly, you need to be located somewhere in a Git repository for this option to work properly.)

Each level overrides values in the previous level: Local > Global > System

You can view all of your settings and where they are coming from using:

$ git config --list --show-origin

or

$ git config --list --show-scope

Basic Setup

You should go through these settings when you first start using Git and save them in your user specific configuration file. This way you will just have to copy your ~/.gitconfig file when you move to another system.

Identity

This is important because every Git commit uses this information, and it’s immutably baked into the commits you start creating.

Also, your email address is used to link the commits you push to an online Git service with your user account (example: GitHub).

$ git config --global user.name "YOUR NAME"

$ git config --global user.email "your_email@example.com"

TIP: If you want to override your identity just for specific projects, you can run the commands without the --global option when you’re inside that project.

Editor

Next we will configure the default text editor that will be used when Git needs you to type in a message.

If not configured, Git uses your system’s default editor (based on the EDITOR environment variable), or else falls back to the Vim editor.

$ git config --global core.editor "COMMAND OPTIONS"

Some examples:

# Atom
$ git config --global core.editor "atom --wait"

# Notepad++
$ git config --global core.editor "'C:/Program Files/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin"

# Visual Studio Code
$ git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

TIP: Specific instructions for how to set up your favorite editor with Git

Line endings

With the option below we ensure that we always have LF line endings inside the repository. Git will not perform any conversion when checking out text files. When committing text files, CRLF will be converted to LF.

Don't overcomplicate things by forcing Git to convert line endings. All modern code editors work with Unix-style LF line endings. Also, there are development tools that rely on LF line endings to work properly (npm scripts, linters, etc...).

$ git config --global core.autocrlf input

TIP: If you use file types that explicitly require CRLF line endings, specify them in a .gitattributes file.

Reference reading:

Others

Some sane defaults to get you going until you start to learn more about Git.

$ git config --global pull.ff only

$ git config --global push.default simple

Reference reading:

Checking your settings

You can check what Git thinks a specific key’s value is by typing git config SECTION.KEY

Examples:

$ git config user.name
YOUR NAME

$ git config user.email
your_email@example.com

$ git config core.autocrlf
input

You can also use the --show-origin or --show-scope options in order for Git to tell you from which configuration file the value is coming from.

Examples:

$ git config --show-origin user.name
file:~/.gitconfig   YOUR NAME

$ git config --show-scope user.email
global  your_email@example.com

Troubleshooting

References