Environment Variables

The configuration files use shell environment variables to call the shell, editor, mail reader, compress and virtual memory status utility. That means that if you set GIT_SHELL, GIT_EDITOR, GIT_RMAIL, GIT_COMPRESS or GIT_VMSTAT to some value, that value will be used instead of the default one. The defaults are:

		GIT_SHELL='/bin/sh'
		GIT_EDITOR='vi'
		GIT_RMAIL='emacs -f rmail'
		GIT_COMPRESS='gzip -9'
		GIT_VMSTAT='free'

If GIT_SHELL is not defined but SHELL is, GIT_SHELL will be set to that value. If GIT_EDITOR is not defined but EDITOR is, GIT_EDITOR will be set to that value. If you want to change the default settings, put something like this into your .profile :

		export GIT_SHELL='/usr/local/bin/bash'
		export GIT_EDITOR='emacs'
		export GIT_RMAIL='elm'
		export GIT_COMPRESS='compress'
		export GIT_VMSTAT='vmstat'