Git is used as distributed version control system for the majority of
projects I work on. On Windows I use the official
Git for
Windows
version, as well as the
'native' mingw/MSYS2 git binary when using the
MSYS2
shell
.
The location of the system and global
gitconfig
configuration files varies,
depending on which environment (native Windows command, Windows shell or MSYS2
shell) you're using, and depending on which binary (Git for Windows versus
native git). There's a logic to it, but it can be hard to figure out...
Git version 2 introduced a much easier method of finding where the git
configuration files are stored, the
--show-origin
flag. This parameter
tells you exactly where each of the configuration files can be found.
Retrieve the locations (and name value pairs) of all git configuration files:
git config --list --show-origin
Retrieve the location (and name value pairs) of the system git configuration
file:
git config --list --system --show-origin
Retrieve the unique locations of all git configuration files:
git config --list --show-origin | awk '{print $1}' | uniq
Local
Regardless from where you use git on Windows, the repository (local)
configuration always resides at the same location, in the root directory of your
repository:
.git \config
You can check this configuration using
git config --list --local
System
The system configuration has also a fixed path on Windows, relative to the
installation directory:
etc \gitconfig
For msysGit:
%ProgramFiles(x86)% \Git \etc \gitconfig
For Git for Windows (64 bit):
%ProgramFiles% \Git \mingw64 \etc \gitconfig
For MSYS2-native git:
[MSYS2-install-path] \etc \gitconfig
This configuration file can be read using
git config --list --system
Global
This is the tricky one. Basically, it depends on what the binary or environment
considers the HOME directory.
When using the Windows command shell, batch scripts or Windows programs,
HOME is
%USERPROFILE%
. The global config file will be read from
%USERPROFILE% \.gitconfig
However, when you're using a (Bash) shell under MSYS2 or Cygwin, HOME under
that shell is
%HOME%
. The global config file will be read from
$HOME/.gitconfig
The global configuration file can be found on yet another location, for Windows
programs that use their own HOME environment. Take Emacs (which uses magit)
for example: When Emacs is started from a Windows command shell, it sets the
HOME variable to
%APPDATA%
, which means that
.gitconfig
reside in
%APPDATA% \.gitconfig
This configuration file can be read using
git config --list --global
So to recap, the global git configuration file can be found under what that
application considers to be the HOME directory, in
.gitconfig
Workflow setup: Linking the global configuration
In my workflow I symlink the various versions of the global configuration. The
system configration stays independent. The file at
%USERPROFILE% \.gitconfig
is considered the master global file where you
make all your changes.
Run this command from within a Windows command shell to create a symbolic link
for the system and global file. Be careful, as this command deletes the current
gitconfig file in your MSYS2 home directory, as well as the one in
%APPDATA%
. Moreover mklink doesn't expand variables, so you'll have to
type in the expanded path yourself.
