Conditional Git Configuration

I recently had the need to use multiple identities when writing commits in Git from a single laptop. I have a standard .gitconfig file which contains my preferred settings for colours, aliases, etc. This file also holds my personal email address that I use for GitHub.

# ~/.gitconfig
[user]
  email = chris@mydomain.com
  name = Chris Forbes

As I wanted to use my work email for work related projects, I did some quick research to find that Git has offered conditional inclusion of settings since version 2.13.

With this in mind, I can update my .gitconfig file to have my default settings, but also include a reference to a separate file to be used when in a sub-directory of a particular path.

# ~/.gitconfig
[user]
  email = chris@mydomain.com
  name = Chris Forbes

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

On Windows it’s slightly different and we use gitdir/i (case insensitive) to also make it work with Visual Studio Code.

# ~/.gitconfig
[user]
  email = chris@mydomain.com
  name = Chris Forbes

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

The included file contains any settings that need to be overridden.

# ~/.gitconfig.work
[user]
  email = chris@example.com

This means that when I am in a directory like ~/dev/work/some-project, and I make a commit, it will use the work email address instead of the personal email address. A nice little addition that makes working with different identities much simpler.