Where do the settings in my Git configuration come from?
After having previously installed Git for Windows and subsequently uninstalling it, I found that there is a configuration file installed at C:\Users\All Users\Git\config
which is a system level configuration file which persists and will affect any future MinGW32 Git packages (in my case, I was running a portable MinGW32 Git package provided by my company). When I ran
git config --system --edit
it would show me the system configuration file located
at mingw32/etc/gitconfig
, but it would still load the values from the first location as well. This showed up as a warning that configuration values clashed when trying to use Git LFS.
WARNING: These git config values clash:
git config "http.sslcainfo" = "C:/Users/foo/AppData/Local/Programs/Git/mingw64/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt"
git config "http.sslcainfo" = "/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt"
(Note: this may also be a situation where LFS warnings are being too assertive, #861)
You don't have to guess anymore which config has been set to where, with git 2.8! (March 2016)
See commit 70bd879, commit 473166b, commit 7454ee3, commit 7454ee3 (19 Feb 2016), commit 473166b, commit 7454ee3 (19 Feb 2016), commit 7454ee3 (19 Feb 2016), and commit a0578e0 (17 Feb 2016) by Lars Schneider (larsxschneider
).
(Merged by Junio C Hamano -- gitster
-- in commit dd0f567, 26 Feb 2016)
config: add '
--show-origin
' option to print the origin of a config valueIf config values are queried using '
git config
' (e.g. via--get
,--get-all
,--get-regexp
, or--list
flag) then it is sometimes hard to find the configuration file where the values were defined.Teach '
git config
' the '--show-origin
' option to print the source configuration file for every printed value.
The git config
man page will now indicates:
--show-origin:
Augment the output of all queried config options with the origin type (file, standard input, blob, command line) and the actual origin (config file path, ref, or blob id if applicable).
For example:
git config --list --show-origin
That will return:
file:$HOME/.gitconfig user.global=true
file:$HOME/.gitconfig user.override=global
file:$HOME/.gitconfig include.path=$INCLUDE_DIR/absolute.include
file:$INCLUDE_DIR/absolute.include user.absolute=include
file:.git/config user.local=true
file:.git/config user.override=local
file:.git/config include.path=../include/relative.include
file:.git/../include/relative.include user.relative=include
command line: user.cmdline=true
For one setting, as commented by wisbucky:
git config --show-origin --get-all core.autocrlf
file:"D:\\prgs\\git\\latest\\mingw64/etc/gitconfig" true
file:C:/Users/vonc/.gitconfig false
With Git 2.26 (Q1 2020), you can add the --show-scope
option:
git config -l --show-origin --show-scope
You can use --show-origin
in order to find out where the configurations come from.
Configuration files priority in Git for Windows:
...
$PROGRAMDATA/Git/config
::
(Windows-only) System-wide configuration file shared with other Git implementations. Typically$PROGRAMDATA
points toC:\ProgramData
.
$(prefix)/etc/gitconfig
::
System-wide configuration file. (Windows-only) This file contains only the settings which are specific for this installation of Git for Windows and which should not be shared with other Git implementations like JGit, libgit2.--system
will select this file.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config
::
Second user-specific configuration file. If$XDG_CONFIG_HOME
is not set or empty,$HOME/.config/git/config
will be used. Any single-valued variable set in this file will be overwritten by whatever is in~/.gitconfig
. It is a good idea not to create this file if you sometimes use older versions of Git, as support for this file was added fairly recently.
~/.gitconfig
::
User-specific configuration file. Also called "global" configuration file.
$GIT_DIR/config
::
Repository specific configuration file....
The files are read in the order given above, with last value found taking precedence over values read earlier.
...
Source: https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/blob/master@%7B2018-01-07%7D/Documentation/git-config.txt#L231
$PROGRAMDATA
is an environment variable. You can get the value of those variables like this:
In Git Bash you need to use echo "$ProgramData"
.
In CMD, you need to use echo %PROGRAMDATA%
.
Note that Git Bash apparently pretends that environment variables are case sensitive.
What is $(prefix)
?
The prefix is the top-level directory into which things get installed. In Git for Windows, that's either <some-path>/mingw64
or <some-path>/mingw32
.
Git checks four places for a configuration file:
- Your machine's system
.gitconfig
file. - Your user
.gitconfig
file located at~/.gitconfig
. - A second user-specific configuration file located at
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config
or$HOME/.config/git/config
. - The local repository's configuration file
.git/config
.
The settings cascade in the following order, with each file adding or overriding settings defined in the file above it.
- System configuration.
- User configuration.
- Repository-specific configuration.
You can see what each file has defined using the following commands:
# System, applies to entire machine and all users
$ git config --system --list
$ git config --system --edit
# User defined
$ git config --global --list
$ git config --global --edit
You can see what just the repository-specific file has defined by opening up the file .git/config
for that repository.
If you're using MSysGit on Windows, you'll probably find your user ~/.gitconfig
file where ever %homepath%
points to if you use echo %homepath%
from a Windows command prompt.
From the documentation for git config
:
If not set explicitly with
--file
, there are four files wheregit config
will search for configuration options:
$(prefix)/etc/gitconfig
System-wide configuration file.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/config
Second user-specific configuration file. If
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME
is not set or empty,$HOME/.config/git/config
will be used. Any single-valued variable set in this file will be overwritten by whatever is in~/.gitconfig
. It is a good idea not to create this file if you sometimes use older versions of Git, as support for this file was added fairly recently.
~/.gitconfig
User-specific configuration file. Also called "global" configuration file.
$GIT_DIR/config
Repository specific configuration file.
If no further options are given, all reading options will read all of these files that are available. If the global or the system-wide configuration file are not available they will be ignored. If the repository configuration file is not available or readable,
git config
will exit with a non-zero error code. However, in neither case will an error message be issued.The files are read in the order given above, with last value found taking precedence over values read earlier. When multiple values are taken then all values of a key from all files will be used.
All writing options will per default write to the repository specific configuration file. Note that this also affects options like
--replace-all
and--unset
.git config
will only ever change one file at a time.You can override these rules either by command-line options or by environment variables. The
--global
and the--system
options will limit the file used to the global or system-wide file respectively. TheGIT_CONFIG
environment variable has a similar effect, but you can specify any filename you want.