“Git config” is not only a concept but a command. When first starting out with Git, a few configurations must be made right away. You can provide these configurations by running a few commands, but as you continue to use Git for more and more projects, you may have need more advanced configurations. In the latter case, you may find it helpful to create a configuration file that you can update and carry with you to other workstations—should the need arise.
Git Config Commands and Configurations
At the very least, in order to do a proper commit, Git requires that you submit your name and email address. You don’t have to use your real name or real email address, but these details are necessary to personalize your commits. Git would be chaotic if there was no way to tell who committed what.
These commands provide the personal data necessary to get started. For your name:
git config --global user.name "Joe Example"
And email:
git config --global user.email [email protected]
Git will search three locations for config settings. Each successive level overwrites values from the previous level. For example, values set in the project (.git/config) will overwrite those set for the system (/etc/gitconfig).
- System level
- First, Git will look into the
/etc/gitconfigfile to identify any system-wide configurations. You can pass configurations to this file by adding the--systemoption to the defaultgit configcommand. - Home level
- The home directory file
~/.gitconfigcontains user level configurations that will only apply to the user. - Project level
- In the
.git/configfile, these values are saved in the project working directory or repository.
Depending on how, when, and where you plan on updating this file, it’s up to you where you want to make these changes. For the sake of simplicity I would recommend the home directory file, .gitconfig, because your settings will only apply to your user account. If you plan on adding other users to your system, and you wish to apply some configurations globally or systemically then you would consider updating the other files as needed.
Name and Email
Of course, first and foremost, Git requires that you provide a name and email with which to sign commits from your account. You can add these to your local Git config likewise:
[user] name = Joe Example email = [email protected]
Git Aliases
Adding aliases to your Git config speeds up your command input.
[alias] st = status logg = log --graph --decorate --oneline --all cm = commit df = diff dfs = diff --staged
To take an example from above, in order to run the git status command you can simply type git st and get the same result. Notice that you can provide even long strings of options and combinations and nest them all in one truncated input line.
Remote Repositories
You can also add remote repositories right from the config file. In the example below, you have a remote repository called “origin,” to and from which you can push and pull.
[remote "origin"] url = [email protected]:/var/lib/git/production.git fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
Text Editor
When you initiate a commit with the git commit command, you are prompted to enter your commit message in a text editor. Here, you can specify which text editor you would prefer to use. In the example below, the emacs text editor is selected, but you could put nano, gedit, vim, or whatever editor you use regularly.
[core] editor = emacs
Check out other Git-related articles in the Support Center: