I cannot add the parent directory to *safe.directory* in Git

Question

After updating Git to v2.35.2.windows.1 I'm getting the following error:

fatal: unsafe repository ('F:/GitHub/my-project' is owned by someone else)
To add an exception for this directory, call:

git config --global --add safe.directory F:/GitHub/my-project

I've tried adding the parent directory of my projects to .gitconfig, but it doesn't work.

[safe]
    directory = F:/GitHub/
    directory = F:/Private/

• Is there a workaround for this?
• What does it actually mean by "'x' is owned by someone else"?

I don't want to add every single project I'm working on to the .gitconfig file.

Answer 1

Starting in Git v2.35.3, safe directory checks can be disabled, which will end all the "unsafe repository" errors (this will also work in the latest patch versions of 2.30-34).

This can be done by running:

git config --global --add safe.directory '*'¹

It will add the following setting to your global .gitconfig file:

[safe]
    directory = *

Before disabling, make sure you understand this security measure, and why it exists. You should not do this if your repositories are stored on a shared drive.

However, if you are the sole user of your machine 100% of the time, and your repositories are stored locally, then disabling this check should, theoretically, pose no increased risk.

Also note that you can't currently combine this with a file path, as the command doesn't interpret the wildcard * as an operator per say– it just takes the "*" argument to mean "disable safe repository checks/ consider all repositories as safe".

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^{1 - If this fails in your particular terminal program in Windows, try surrounding the wildcard with double quotes instead of single (Via this GitHub issue):
git config --global --add safe.directory "*"}