Git Config Scopes

Git supports multiple scopes for setting configuration options:

• System-wide configuration (/etc/gitconfig)
• User-wide configuration (~/.config/git/config and ~/.gitconfig)
• Repository configuration (.git/config)

More specified scopes trump less specific scopes. For example, a value set in ~/.gitconfig will overwrite a value in /etc/gitconfig.

Typically, the configuration options kept in each file are fairly disjoint. For example, user identity is kept in the user's config, and branch remote information is kept in the repository's config. However, all configuration options are valid across all scopes!

Repository specific identity

One use of this is to have user identity information kept in the repository's config file.

[user]
    name = My Name
    email = my.name@example.com

And other options

This also works in reverse; you can configure a remote at the global configuration level:

[remote "remotename"]
    url = ssh://git@127.0.0.1/gitrepo

$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in ...
$ git fetch remotename
remote: Counting objects...