gitlint/docs/configuration.md

Configuration

Gitlint can be configured through different means.

The .gitlint file

You can modify gitlint's behavior by adding a .gitlint file to your git repository.

Generate a default .gitlint config file by running:

gitlint generate-config

You can also use a different config file like so:

gitlint --config myconfigfile.ini 

The block below shows a sample .gitlint file. Details about rule config options can be found on the Rules page, details about the [general] section can be found in the General Configuration section of this page.

# Edit this file as you like.
#
# All these sections are optional. Each section with the exception of [general] represents
# one rule and each key in it is an option for that specific rule.
#
# Rules and sections can be referenced by their full name or by id. For example
# section "[body-max-line-length]" could also be written as "[B1]". Full section names are
# used in here for clarity.
# Rule reference documentation: http://jorisroovers.github.io/gitlint/rules/
#
# Use 'gitlint generate-config' to generate a config file with all possible options
[general]
# Ignore certain rules (comma-separated list), you can reference them by their
# id or by their full name
ignore=title-trailing-punctuation, T3

# verbosity should be a value between 1 and 3, the commandline -v flags take
# precedence over this
verbosity = 2

# By default gitlint will ignore merge, revert, fixup and squash commits.
ignore-merge-commits=true
ignore-revert-commits=true
ignore-fixup-commits=true
ignore-squash-commits=true

# Ignore any data send to gitlint via stdin
ignore-stdin=true

# Fetch additional meta-data from the local repository when manually passing a 
# commit message to gitlint via stdin or --commit-msg. Disabled by default.
staged=true

# Enable debug mode (prints more output). Disabled by default.
debug=true

# Enable community contributed rules
# See http://jorisroovers.github.io/gitlint/contrib_rules for details
contrib=contrib-title-conventional-commits,CC1

# Set the extra-path where gitlint will search for user defined rules
# See http://jorisroovers.github.io/gitlint/user_defined_rules for details
extra-path=examples/

# This is an example of how to configure the "title-max-length" rule and
# set the line-length it enforces to 80
[title-max-length]
line-length=80

# Conversely, you can also enforce minimal length of a title with the
# "title-min-length" rule:
[title-min-length]
min-length=5

[title-must-not-contain-word]
# Comma-separated list of words that should not occur in the title. Matching is case
# insensitive. It's fine if the keyword occurs as part of a larger word (so "WIPING"
# will not cause a violation, but "WIP: my title" will.
words=wip

[title-match-regex]
# python like regex (https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html) that the
# commit-msg title must be matched to.
# Note that the regex can contradict with other rules if not used correctly
# (e.g. title-must-not-contain-word).
regex=^US[0-9]*

[body-max-line-length]
line-length=120

[body-min-length]
min-length=5

[body-is-missing]
# Whether to ignore this rule on merge commits (which typically only have a title)
# default = True
ignore-merge-commits=false

[body-changed-file-mention]
# List of files that need to be explicitly mentioned in the body when they are changed
# This is useful for when developers often erroneously edit certain files or git submodules.
# By specifying this rule, developers can only change the file when they explicitly
# reference it in the commit message.
files=gitlint/rules.py,README.md

[body-match-regex]
# python-style regex that the commit-msg body must match.
# E.g. body must end in My-Commit-Tag: foo
regex=My-Commit-Tag: foo$

[author-valid-email]
# python like regex (https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html) that the
# commit author email address should be matched to
# E.g.: For example, use the following regex if you only want to allow email
# addresses from foo.com
regex=[^@]+@foo.com

[ignore-by-title]
# Ignore certain rules for commits of which the title matches a regex
# E.g. Match commit titles that start with "Release"
regex=^Release(.*)

# Ignore certain rules, you can reference them by their id or by their full name
# Use 'all' to ignore all rules
ignore=T1,body-min-length

[ignore-by-body]
# Ignore certain rules for commits of which the body has a line that matches a regex
# E.g. Match bodies that have a line that that contain "release"
# regex=(.*)release(.*)
#
# Ignore certain rules, you can reference them by their id or by their full name
# Use 'all' to ignore all rules
ignore=T1,body-min-length

[ignore-body-lines]
# Ignore certain lines in a commit body that match a regex.
# E.g. Ignore all lines that start with 'Co-Authored-By'
regex=^Co-Authored-By

# This is a contrib rule - a community contributed rule. These are disabled by default.
# You need to explicitly enable them one-by-one by adding them to the "contrib" option
# under [general] section above.
[contrib-title-conventional-commits]
# Specify allowed commit types. For details see: https://www.conventionalcommits.org/
types = bugfix,user-story,epic

Commandline config

You can also use one or more -c flags like so:

$ gitlint -c general.verbosity=2 -c title-max-length.line-length=80 -c B1.line-length=100

The generic config flag format is -c <rule>.<option>=<value> and supports all the same rules and options which you can also use in a .gitlint config file.

Commit specific config

You can also configure gitlint by adding specific lines to your commit message. For now, we only support ignoring commits by adding gitlint-ignore: all to the commit message like so:

WIP: This is my commit message

I want gitlint to ignore this entire commit message.
gitlint-ignore: all

gitlint-ignore: all can occur on any line, as long as it is at the start of the line.

You can also specify specific rules to be ignored as follows:

WIP: This is my commit message

I want gitlint to ignore this entire commit message.
gitlint-ignore: T1, body-hard-tab

Configuration precedence

gitlint configuration is applied in the following order of precedence:

1. Commit specific config (e.g.: gitlint-ignore: all in the commit message)
2. Configuration Rules (e.g.: ignore-by-title)
3. Commandline convenience flags (e.g.: -vv, --silent, --ignore)
4. Environment variables (e.g.: GITLINT_VERBOSITY=3)
5. Commandline configuration flags (e.g.: -c title-max-length=123)
6. Configuration file (local .gitlint file, or file specified using -C/--config)
7. Default gitlint config

General Options

Below we outline all configuration options that modify gitlint's overall behavior. These options can be specified using commandline flags or in [general] section in a .gitlint configuration file.

silent

Enable silent mode (no output). Use exit code to determine result.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
False	>= 0.1.0	--silent	GITLINT_SILENT

Examples

# CLI
gitlint --silent
GITLINT_SILENT=1 gitlint  # using env variable

verbosity

Amount of output gitlint will show when printing errors.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
3	>= 0.1.0	-v	GITLINT_VERBOSITY

Examples

# CLI
gitlint -vvv                   # default     (level 3)
gitlint -vv                    # less output (level 2)
gitlint -v                     # even less   (level 1)
gitlint --silent               # no output   (level 0)
gitlint -c general.verbosity=1 # Set specific level
gitlint -c general.verbosity=0 # Same as --silent
GITLINT_VERBOSITY=2 gitlint    # using env variable

# .gitlint
[general]
verbosity=2

ignore

Comma separated list of rules to ignore (by name or id).

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
[] (=empty list)	>= 0.1.0	--ignore	GITLINT_IGNORE

Examples

# CLI
gitlint --ignore=body-min-length              # ignore single rule
gitlint --ignore=T1,body-min-length           # ignore multiple rule
gitlint -c general.ignore=T1,body-min-length  # different way of doing the same
GITLINT_IGNORE=T1,body-min-length gitlint     # using env variable

#.gitlint
[general]
ignore=T1,body-min-length

debug

Enable debugging output.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
false	>= 0.7.1	--debug	GITLINT_DEBUG

Examples

# CLI
gitlint --debug
GITLINT_DEBUG=1 gitlint # using env variable
# --debug is special, the following does NOT work
# gitlint -c general.debug=true

target

Target git repository gitlint should be linting against.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
(empty)	>= 0.8.0	--target	GITLINT_TARGET

Examples

# CLI
gitlint --target=/home/joe/myrepo/
gitlint -c general.target=/home/joe/myrepo/  # different way of doing the same
GITLINT_TARGET=/home/joe/myrepo/ gitlint     # using env variable

#.gitlint
[general]
target=/home/joe/myrepo/

extra-path

Path where gitlint looks for user-defined rules.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
(empty)	>= 0.8.0	--extra-path	GITLINT_EXTRA_PATH

Examples

# CLI
gitlint --extra-path=/home/joe/rules/
gitlint -c general.extra-path=/home/joe/rules/  # different way of doing the same
GITLINT_EXTRA_PATH=/home/joe/rules/ gitlint     # using env variable

#.gitlint
[general]
extra-path=/home/joe/rules/

contrib

Comma-separated list of Contrib rules to enable (by name or id).

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
(empty)	>= 0.12.0	--contrib	GITLINT_CONTRIB

Examples

# CLI
gitlint --contrib=contrib-title-conventional-commits,CC1
# different way of doing the same
gitlint -c general.contrib=contrib-title-conventional-commits,CC1
# using env variable
GITLINT_CONTRIB=contrib-title-conventional-commits,CC1 gitlint   

#.gitlint
[general]
contrib=contrib-title-conventional-commits,CC1

staged

Fetch additional meta-data from the local repository when manually passing a commit message to gitlint via stdin or --commit-msg.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
false	>= 0.13.0	--staged	GITLINT_STAGED

Examples

# CLI
gitlint --staged
gitlint -c general.staged=true # different way of doing the same
GITLINT_STAGED=1 gitlint       # using env variable

#.gitlint
[general]
staged=true

ignore-stdin

Ignore any stdin data. Sometimes useful when running gitlint in a CI server.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
false	>= 0.12.0	--ignore-stdin	GITLINT_IGNORE_STDIN

Examples

# CLI
gitlint --ignore-stdin
gitlint -c general.ignore-stdin=true # different way of doing the same
GITLINT_IGNORE_STDIN=1 gitlint       # using env variable

#.gitlint
[general]
ignore-stdin=true

ignore-merge-commits

Whether or not to ignore merge commits.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
true	>= 0.7.0	Not Available	Not Available

Examples

# CLI
gitlint -c general.ignore-merge-commits=false

#.gitlint
[general]
ignore-merge-commits=false

ignore-revert-commits

Whether or not to ignore revert commits.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
true	>= 0.13.0	Not Available	Not Available

Examples

# CLI
gitlint -c general.ignore-revert-commits=false

#.gitlint
[general]
ignore-revert-commits=false

ignore-fixup-commits

Whether or not to ignore fixup commits.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
true	>= 0.9.0	Not Available	Not Available

Examples

# CLI
gitlint -c general.ignore-fixup-commits=false

#.gitlint
[general]
ignore-fixup-commits=false

ignore-squash-commits

Whether or not to ignore squash commits.

Default value	gitlint version	commandline flag	environment variable
true	>= 0.9.0	Not Available	Not Available

Examples

# CLI
gitlint -c general.ignore-squash-commits=false

#.gitlint
[general]
ignore-squash-commits=false