There are 3 common levels for the git configurations, and two more that are not so common and very rarely used.
The best way to find them, is to use the editor, and run commands like e.g. git config --edit --global to open the global config file in the editor. The same for the other configurations. The editor will open the file in the correct location.
Locations below are for Windows. For Linux, the locations are different, but you find them the same way.
Notice that the names of the config files differs for the different levels.
| Configuration | Location | Command | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | E.g. C:\Program Files\Git\etc\gitconfig
|
git config --system --edit |
Applies to all users on the system and all their repos. Will be created and written when git is installed with the options you chose at that time. It is rarely modified afterwards, but if you work with multiple users on your machine, it can replace the use of the global. |
| Global | E.g. %userprofile%\.gitconfig
|
git config --global --edit |
Applies to all repos for the current user. Created at first pull/push. Very commonly used. |
| Local |
.git/config in the repo |
git config --edit |
Applies to the current repo only. Created when you first edit it. Used when you need to override something in a particular repo. |
There are also two more, but they are very rarely used.
| Configuration | Location | Command | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worktree |
.git/config.worktree in the repo |
git config --edit --worktree |
Applies to the current repo only. Created when you first edit it. Very rarely used. |
| File based | C:\ProgramData\Git\config |
git config --edit --file "C:\ProgramData\Git\config" |
Applies to all repos for the current user. Very rarely used. |
The worktree configuration is used when you have multiple worktrees for the same repo. It require the extensions.worktreeConfig to be present in the local configuration. It is not used very often.
The configurations are read in the order above, and the last one read will override the previous ones.
This may cause you to wonder why your config doesn't work after you have changed it. You will always write to a specific level, and if that particular setting have an override in a higher level, then your change will have no effect.
The best way to figure it out, is to run git config --show-origin <your config value> to see where it is read from. The format should be like section.name. If you don't know the section, you can use git config --list --show-origin to see all the settings and where they are read from.
If you just want to see the actual value of a given config value, you can use git config <your config value>.
Example:
git config --show-origin user.name will give you something like:
file:C:/Users/TerjeSandstrom/.gitconfig Terje SandstromUsing the table above, you see that this file is the global config file for user Terje Sandstrom.
Setting up diff and merge tools
Official Git Config reference documentation
Tip: You can get help locally by running git config --help.
(P.S. This way of getting help applies to all git commands.)