Defining some global GIT settings to be automatically inherited

Question

Sysnopsis

Coming from a Linux background I still find Apples' modifications to the Unix hierarchy somewhat confusing. Nevertheless these subtle changes make it difficult for me to quickly do what I need.

• I shall explain my scenario in a linux setting as it would make the most sense, then hope someone can translate this into BSD/OS X lingo.
• I do not like GUI-based things if theres a CLI alternative.

Problem

I recently installed GIT so I could work on a number of projects from my MacBook, in linux one can define default config settings in /etc/gitconfig which is first loaded into the users' configuration and then merged with ~/.gitconfig.

When I create this default global git configuration file inside /etc/gitconfig it has not effect when I run my aliases, unless I specifically define them for each user on the machine.

Could someone please suggest to me exactly how this default behaviour works on OS X?

Answer 1

This might help someone I found this config in the following location: /usr/local/git/etc/gitconfig

Answer 2

You can try

git config --system -e 

and

git config --global -e 

to open the system and global config files in an editor. That will tell you what path git is looking for those files, by looking at the file it opens.

Answer 3

You won't believe it, but after installing Xcode 5.1.1 in Mavericks 10.9.3, now the --system path for my gitconfig is

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/etc/