.. _configure-git: ================= Git configuration ================= .. _git-config-basic: 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 .. include:: git_links.inc