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Dotfiles

Git

Two files: .gitconfig (defaults and aliases) and .gitignore_global (files to ignore everywhere).

What the installer does

Section titled “What the installer does”

Your ~/.gitconfig holds your name, email and credentials, so the installer doesn’t replace it. Instead it adds the repo’s settings one at a time with git config --global:

  • A setting you don’t have yet is added: installed: git pull.rebase = true
  • A setting you already have is kept, even if it’s different: kept: git pull.rebase = false (yours; the dotfiles use true)
  • .gitignore_global is copied to ~/.gitignore_global, and core.excludesfile is set to it, unless you already point git at another ignore file.

Nothing happens if git isn’t installed (you get a warning).

.gitconfig defaults

Section titled “.gitconfig defaults”
Setting Value Why
init.defaultBranch main new repos start on main (GitHub’s default) instead of master
core.autocrlf input Windows line endings (CRLF) become LF when you commit, never the other way. Stops files edited on Windows from showing every line as changed
pull.rebase true git pull puts your local commits on top of the remote ones instead of making a merge commit, so history stays a straight line

To set them by hand instead:

Terminal window
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
git config --global core.autocrlf input
git config --global pull.rebase true

.gitconfig aliases

Section titled “.gitconfig aliases”
Alias What it does
git lg compact, coloured history graph of all branches
git s git status

git lg: one coloured line per commit with hash, message, age and author

git lg shows one line per commit: short hash (red), branch/tag names (yellow), message, age (green) and author (blue), with a graph of how branches join.

The [user] section is empty on purpose — don’t commit your email to a public repo.

Set the aliases by hand

Section titled “Set the aliases by hand”
Terminal window
git config --global alias.s status
git config --global alias.lg "log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit --branches"

--global writes to ~/.gitconfig, adding to what’s there.

.gitignore_global

Section titled “.gitignore_global”

A list of files git should ignore in every repo: macOS and Windows clutter (.DS_Store, Thumbs.db, ._*), Python and C++ build output (*.pyc, *.out), node_modules, venv, .vscode and cache folders.

Git only uses it if core.excludesfile points to it. The installer sets that up; by hand:

Terminal window
cp .gitignore_global ~/.gitignore_global
git config --global core.excludesfile "$HOME/.gitignore_global"