Git: force colourization with color.ui or --color

The color.ui configuration option

You can control colourization in general with the color.ui configuration option. For a single command, set it with git -c:

$ git -c color.ui=never branch

Or set it globally with git config:

$ git config --global color.ui always

I wouldn’t set the option globally on a development machine, but it can be useful on CI systems that support ANSI colour codes.

color.ui takes three possible values:

• never: turn off colourization.
• always: turn on colourization.
• auto: the default, use colourization when writing to an interactive terminal.

Some commands have their own colourization options, which override color.ui. For example, the color.branch option can be set to control whether git branch colourizes its output. It’s rare to want such fine-grained control, but it’s there if you need it.

The --color option

Some Git commands accept a --color option to force colourization, for example, git log. This can be a little more convenient for one-off commands, but it’s only a limited subset of commands that support it.

Use bare --color to force colourization on:

$ git log --color

Or --color=never to force colourization off:

$ git log --color=never

Or --color=auto to select the default behaviour:

$ git log --color=auto

The main commands which accept a --color option, at time of writing, are:

• git diff
• git log
• git show
• git tag

Fin

May Git continue to bring light and colour into your life,

—Adam