Usage

$ git config -h

usage: git config [<options>]

Quick reference

Drop --global if you need to work on a repo-specific config.

$ git config --global -e 
$ git config --global user.email abc@example.com
$ git config --global user.email
abc@example.com

Flags

Config file location

Global

Mostly you’ll the global option to edit ~/.gitconfig.

$ git config --global

Local

If you want to edit the config of a git repo. This is the default option, so you can drop the flag.

$ git config --local
$ # OR
$ git config

System

I don’t think I have needed this.

$ git config --system

The config file

Or use your editor to open the ~/.gitconfig file. This makes it easy to read, add and update values.

Note that the config uses TOML format and tabs for indentation.

Modes

Edit config

Use the command-line.

$ git config -e # --edit

After you save the changes to the git config, the changes will be immediately available without restarting the terminal. As the config is read each git is called.

Set a value

$ git config KEY VALUE

e.g.

$ git config --global user.email abc@example.com

$ git config --global --global alias.root "rev-parse --show-toplevel"

You can also use the --add command but I haven’t seen this in use.

$ git config --add NAME VALUE

View

Show all values.

$ git config -l # --list

Get one value.

$ $ git config --get NAME_REGEX

Note that if a value is not set for the local config, the global config will be used, so --global can actually be dropped here.

e.g.

$ git config --global user.email
abc@example.com
$ git config --global --get core.editor
nano

Get keys matching pattern.

$ git config --regexp PATTERN

e.g.

$ git config --regexp alias
alias.st status -s -b
alias.c commit
alias.br branch -a -v
alias.co checkout
...