Exercise 6.1 : Configurations

Checking your configuration

Drop down to any git repository

List your complete configuration by

git config -l

You possibly got quite a long list, remember it has three levels, so you can filter it by that:

git config --system -l

git config --global -l

git config --local -l

Some configs to be aware of

Check that you have set the editor for git

Verify that the editor is being called, by doing :

git config --global --edit

Is the expected editor opened?

Create a new repo (using git init), or use an existing scrap one.

Then do:

echo abc > abc.md
git add abc.md
git commit -e

What lines are not included ?

What happens if you just close the editor window with nothing added ?

Check that you’re using the credential manager

git config credential.helper

The response should be

manager

Check that you’re ignoring case and have autocrlf on

git config core.ignorecase

The response should be ’true'

Likewise, check that core.autocrlf is true

Tip and trap

Can be wise to check that you have core.longpaths true too.

If not, you can set it by:

git config core.longpaths true

But… where was it really written ?

How do you check where it was written?

Now, write it into the global location!

Tip 2 Removing a wrongly set config key

Assume you set this in the wrong place, you get rid of that key by:

git config --system --unset core.longpaths

Set up access to unix tools

Check if you have ‘grep’ installed:

where grep

If not, then run :

where git

You will get a response that says something like

C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe

Pick out the path above the cmd, add usr/bin to that, and add the complete path to your environment PATH.

(You can check in explorer that you have a valid path) On my machine it was:

C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin

Verify again that you have ‘grep’ working.

Set up merge and diff tools

You need good 3-way merge tools to handle merging. The built-in is doable, but it is easier to use more full blown tool.

Visual Studio is a good tool, but also tools like KDiff3.

If you have Visual Studio, setting it up is as easy as using the Visual Studio Git Settings page.

For Visual Studio users

Go to the Git Settings hub, select the Global settings, and enable the diff tool and merge tool for VS.

Go back to the command line:

Run

git config -l | grep merge

Go to DiffMergeTools for further instructions on setting this up for different scenarios. Pick the one that suits you!