At which level should git be configured?

In software development, version control is a very important link. Git is one of the most popular distributed version control systems currently. Git has many configuration options, including global configuration, warehouse-level configuration, local branch-level configuration, remote branch-level configuration, etc. So, at which level should Git be configured?

First, we need to understand the configuration hierarchy of Git. Git configuration is divided into three levels: system level, global user level and warehouse level.

System-level configuration takes effect for all users and repositories using Git, including the Git client installed on the machine and the Git server on the server. Global user-level configuration takes effect on all Git repositories of the current user. Generally, each Git repository has a local configuration file (.git/config), which stores the repository-level configuration.

From the above description, we can see that Git configuration has multiple levels, and each level has different functions. The following is my understanding of each level of configuration:

1. System level configuration

System level configuration refers to the global configuration for the entire Git operating environment, mainly including Git client and Git server. These configurations are effective for all users and repositories using Git, so they are generally only completed by system administrators. For example, we may need to configure cache, enable SSH protocol, etc. on the Git server. In addition, system-level configuration has no impact on users performing Git operations.

2. Global user-level configuration

Global user-level configuration takes effect on all Git repositories of the current user. The user level here refers to the level of the current operating system user, which is the ~/.gitconfig file. This file stores all the user's Git configuration, so we only need to configure it once to use these configurations in all Git repositories under the current user. For example, we may need to set the default Push branch name, user name and email address, etc.

3. Warehouse-level configuration

Warehouse-level configuration refers to the local configuration of a single Git warehouse, that is, the .git/config file. This file stores the configuration information of a specific Git repository and is only valid for Git commands in this repository. For example, we may need to set the default binding remote branch name, modify the submitter's email address, etc.

Through the above analysis, we can know that different Git configuration levels have different scopes, so we need to choose the appropriate level for configuration.

In general, we recommend configuring Git at the warehouse level. Because each Git warehouse is independent of each other, for a single Git warehouse, the warehouse-level configuration best suits its own needs. For example, we may need to set the commit information template in a certain Git repository, and this setting is only effective for changing one Git repository and has no effect on other Git repositories.

However, repository-level configuration may be insufficient to solve some common problems on Git. For example, when solving the permission problem between Git client and Git server, we need to configure system-level parameters to achieve globally effective configuration. For example: If we want to run a Git service on a Windows server and restrict users to only using Git for reading and writing files, then we may need to set system-level parameters.

In short, Git’s configuration hierarchy solves many problems for us. By choosing the appropriate configuration level, we can avoid unnecessary configuration conflicts and make Git configuration more targeted and practical.

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