Git configuration#
Overview#
Your personal git configurations are saved in the .gitconfig
file in
your home directory.
Here is an example .gitconfig
file:
[user]
name = Your Name
email = you@yourdomain.example.com
[alias]
ci = commit -a
co = checkout
st = status -a
stat = status -a
br = branch
wdiff = diff --color-words
[core]
editor = vim
[merge]
summary = true
You can edit this file directly or you can use the git config --global
command:
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email you@yourdomain.example.com
git config --global alias.ci "commit -a"
git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.st "status -a"
git config --global alias.stat "status -a"
git config --global alias.br branch
git config --global alias.wdiff "diff --color-words"
git config --global core.editor vim
git config --global merge.summary true
To set up on another computer, you can copy your ~/.gitconfig
file,
or run the commands above.
In detail#
user.name and user.email#
It is good practice to tell git who you are, for labeling any changes you make to the code. The simplest way to do this is from the command line:
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email you@yourdomain.example.com
This will write the settings into your git configuration file, which should now contain a user section with your name and email:
[user]
name = Your Name
email = you@yourdomain.example.com
Of course you’ll need to replace Your Name
and you@yourdomain.example.com
with your actual name and email address.
Aliases#
You might well benefit from some aliases to common commands.
For example, you might well want to be able to shorten git checkout
to git co
. Or you may want to alias git diff --color-words
(which gives a nicely formatted output of the diff) to git wdiff
The following git config --global
commands:
git config --global alias.ci "commit -a"
git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.st "status -a"
git config --global alias.stat "status -a"
git config --global alias.br branch
git config --global alias.wdiff "diff --color-words"
will create an alias
section in your .gitconfig
file with contents
like this:
[alias]
ci = commit -a
co = checkout
st = status -a
stat = status -a
br = branch
wdiff = diff --color-words
Editor#
You may also want to make sure that your editor of choice is used
git config --global core.editor vim
Merging#
To enforce summaries when doing merges (~/.gitconfig
file again):
[merge]
log = true
Or from the command line:
git config --global merge.log true