Configuration

This section overviews ways to configure git utility. Check official description here.

Command

The git config command is used to manage Git configuration settings via the command line. It interacts with specific configuration files to set or retrieve values.

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The following cells show the output of the command, listing the options set for the configuration of the particular repository.

git config --list --local

core.repositoryformatversion=0
core.filemode=true
core.bare=false
core.logallrefupdates=true

But all it does is display a toml-like configuration file .git/config that determines the behaviour of the git utility specifically for that repository.

cat .git/config

[core]
	repositoryformatversion = 0
	filemode = true
	bare = false
	logallrefupdates = true

File

git config is an interface for creating special configuration files. You can modify these files manually, and this section provides an overview of the available options. There is a special section in the official documentation that explains how to manage Git configuration files.

Several files regulate Git’s behavior:

• System-wide: typically located at /etc/gitconfig.

• Global: applied to a particular user, typically located at ~/.gitconfig.

• Local: applied only to the specific repository, typically located at ./.git/config.

• Worktree: typically located at ./.git/config.worktree.

---

The following cell adds the system configuration file. The resulting configuration file defines an alias for the git echo command to print the system message.

cat << EOF > /etc/gitconfig
[alias]    
    echo="!echo system"
EOF

We can check if git has understood the configuration well by listing all available configurations with git config --list.

git config --list --system

alias.echo=!echo system

And it’s really easy to check if created alias works, just by invoking git echo.

git echo 

system

Variables

This section covers the options you can use for your configuration. Check the official documentation list. The list of variables is quite extensive, so the following cell includes, in my opinion, only the most important options.

Category	Variable	Description
User	user.name	Defines the name to be used for commits.
	user.email	Defines the email address to be used for commits.
Core	core.editor	Specifies the editor to be used by Git commands.
	core.autocrlf	Controls automatic line-ending conversion between Windows and Unix systems.
	core.safecrlf	Ensures files are checked in with consistent line endings when core.autocrlf is enabled.
	core.ignorecase	Determines if Git should ignore case differences in file names.
	core.fileMode	Controls whether file permissions are tracked.
	core.excludesfile	Specifies the path to a global .gitignore file.
	core.hooksPath	Specifies the path to a directory containing custom Git hooks.
Remote	remote.origin.url	URL of the remote repository named origin.
	remote.origin.fetch	Defines the refspec for fetching changes from the remote repository named origin.
Branch	branch.<name>.remote	Sets the remote repository for a specific branch.
	branch.<name>.merge	Specifies the branch to merge from the remote repository.
Pull/Push	pull.rebase	Determines if git pull should use rebase instead of merge.
	push.default	Controls the default behavior of git push (e.g., simple, matching).
Commit	commit.template	Specifies a template file for commit messages.
	rebase.autosquash	Automatically squashes fixup and squash commits when rebasing.
Color	color.ui	Enables or disables colored output in Git commands.
Diff/Merge	diff.tool	Defines the diff tool to be used for comparing changes.
	merge.tool	Specifies the merge tool to use for resolving merge conflicts.
	mergetool.keepBackup	Controls whether Git keeps backup files after a merge resolution.
Alias	alias.<name>	Defines a shorthand alias for Git commands.
Log	log.date	Configures the date format for git log output.
Garbage Collection	gc.auto	Defines when automatic garbage collection should occur based on the number of loose objects.
HTTP	http.sslVerify	Controls whether SSL verification is performed when using HTTPS.
Init	init.defaultBranch	Sets the default branch name when initializing a new repository.
Credential	credential.helper	Specifies a credential helper to use when authenticating with a remote repository.

For some of them find more accurate description in the special page.