Aliases and Useful Configuration

Git is very configurable. A handful of aliases saves a lot of typing, a few settings change defaults that most people find better, and a .gitattributes file makes line endings and binary files behave the same for everyone on a team.

Aliases

An alias is a short name for a longer command:

git config --global alias.st "status -sb"
git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline --graph --all --decorate"
git config --global alias.last "log -1 HEAD --stat"
git st

Output

## main

git lg

Output

* 529acae (soups) Add tomato soup
* 90c0089 (HEAD -> main) Add omelette recipe
* c4f5e47 Add pancake recipe

Aliases are stored in the [alias] section of your global config and accept extra arguments, so git lg -5 works.

A few popular ones:

CONFIG ~/.gitconfig

[alias]
    st = status -sb
    co = checkout
    sw = switch
    br = branch -vv
    lg = log --oneline --graph --all --decorate
    last = log -1 HEAD --stat
    unstage = restore --staged
    undo = reset --soft HEAD~1
    amend = commit --amend --no-edit
    wip = !git add -A && git commit -m "WIP"

An alias starting with ! runs as a shell command, so it can chain several commands. Keep aliases you understand — when you're on someone else's machine, you'll need the full commands.

Settings worth knowing

Setting	Effect
`init.defaultBranch main`	Name of the first branch in new repositories
`pull.rebase true`	Rebase instead of merge when pulling (lesson 34)
`push.autoSetupRemote true`	The first `git push` on a new branch sets its upstream automatically
`fetch.prune true`	Remove remote-tracking branches deleted on the server
`rebase.autoSquash true`	Apply `fixup!` commits automatically (lesson 27)
`merge.conflictStyle zdiff3`	Show the original text in conflicts (lesson 25)
`rerere.enabled true`	"Reuse recorded resolution": remember how you resolved a conflict and repeat it if the same conflict reappears
`diff.colorMoved default`	Show moved lines in a different colour from added/removed ones
`branch.sort -committerdate`	List recently used branches first
`commit.verbose true`	Show the diff in the editor while writing a commit message
`help.autocorrect prompt`	Offer to run the command you probably meant after a typo

git config --global branch.sort -committerdate
git branch

Output

  soups
* main

Different settings for different folders

With includeIf, Git loads an extra config file only for repositories inside a particular folder — perfect for using a work email for work projects automatically:

CONFIG ~/.gitconfig

[user]
    name = Sam Rivera
    email = sam@example.com

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

CONFIG ~/.gitconfig-work

[user]
    email = sam.rivera@company.example

.gitattributes

A .gitattributes file, committed to the repository, tells Git how to treat files by pattern. Its most important job is line endings: unlike each person's core.autocrlf setting, it applies to everyone who clones the project.

TXT .gitattributes

# Let Git normalise line endings of text files to LF in the repository
* text=auto

# Always use LF for shell scripts, even on Windows
*.sh text eol=lf

# Windows batch files need CRLF
*.bat text eol=crlf

# Never touch these: binary files
*.png binary
*.jpg binary
*.pdf binary

Attribute	Meaning
`text=auto`	Git decides whether a file is text; text files are stored with LF and converted on checkout as configured
`eol=lf` / `eol=crlf`	Always check out with these line endings
`binary`	No line-ending conversion and no text diff
`-diff`	Don't show diffs for these files (e.g. lock files)
`linguist-generated`	(GitHub) collapse these files in pull request diffs

After adding .gitattributes to an existing project, run git add --renormalize . and commit, so files already in the repository follow the new rules.

printf '* text=auto\n*.sh text eol=lf\n*.png binary\n' > .gitattributes
git check-attr -a run.sh logo.png

Output

run.sh: text: set
run.sh: eol: lf
logo.png: binary: set
logo.png: diff: unset
logo.png: merge: unset
logo.png: text: unset

Seeing everything

git config --global --list

Output

alias.st=status -sb
alias.lg=log --oneline --graph --all --decorate
alias.last=log -1 HEAD --stat
branch.sort=-committerdate

git config --list --show-origin shows every setting and the file it comes from — handy when a setting isn't doing what you expect.

Try it yourself

Add three aliases you'd actually use, set push.autoSetupRemote and fetch.prune, and check them with git config --global --list. In a project, add a .gitattributes with * text=auto and use git check-attr to see how Git treats a few files.

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