Background

When setting options using git config, you can set options on the global level or on the repository level. The global configuration is typically stored in ~/.gitconfig and the repository configuration in $REPOSITORY_PATH/.git/config.

Here’s the user section of my ~/.gitconfig:

[user]
    email = andre@laszlo.nu
    name = André Laszlo

This configures the default name and email that will be used when I make commits in a repository with no user.email or user.name set on the repository level.

The problem

Here’s my problem: I have a lot of repositories, and I use several email addresses.

For work, I’d like to use my work email address. I could run git config user.email "andre.laszlo@example.com", but I’d have to remember to do it in all of the repositories I use for work - and it’s typically a lot. I could also change the default, and remember to update the configuration for all non-work repositories, but it’s also a lot.

If you have separate work computers and private computers, you can of course just change your global configuration, but if you don’t have separate computers — or if you want to use different configurations for other reasons — this can get a bit annoying.

The solution

I recently found a really nice way to solve this by setting a configuration for many repos at once, logically adding a level between the global level and the repository level configs:

• Put all the repos in a common parent directory, let’s say ~/work/.
• Create a new ~/work/.gitconfig file and add any overrides there, for example:

  [user]
  email = andre.laszlo@example.com
  

• Add this to your global git config (typically in ~/.gitconfig):

  [includeIf "gitdir:~/work/"]
      path = ~/work/.gitconfig
  

This means that any repository in the ~/work/ directory will get this configuration, and you don’t need to remember to add an override to every repository.

Another nice thing is that you can add a project-level .gitignore as well, by adding this to your ~/work/.gitconfig:

[core]
    excludesfile = ~/work/.gitignore