Why does SourceTree automatically update my ~/.gitconfig file

[Ankush Agarwal]

Whenever I open SourceTree, it adds the following lines to my ~/.gitconfig file :

[difftool "sourcetree"]

cmd = opendiff \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\"

path =

[mergetool "sourcetree"]

cmd = /Applications/SourceTree.app/Contents/Resources/opendiff-w.sh \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" -ancestor \"$BASE\" -merge \"$MERGED\"

trustExitCode = true

I don't want it to do that

[Balázs Szakmáry · Accepted solution]

In Tools/Options ("General" tab), on the top left, there is a checkbox: "Allow SourceTree to modify my global Git and Mercurial config files". If you uncheck this, it will stop doing it.

[Ankush Agarwal]

Got it. Thanks!

[Mateusz Loskot]

@Ankush Agarwalasked Why SourceTree modifies the file?

It would be good to understand why too, not just how to prevent it.

[DragonFyre]

This seems to still be an issue or one that has resurfaced.  I have sourcetree version 3.2.6 and I have unchecked that option and every time I exit the options page it automatically updates my gitconfig to blank out the difftool and mergetool cmd lines even it I'm not on the diff option tab.  It only shows "system default" in the diff option tab, but it is not selectable to set it to my user installed preferred version of beyond compare (in appdata folder).