macOS git branch displays branches in less

Question

I'm running git version 2.16.1 under macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 and when I use git branch, the result is displayed through less. On the contrary, when I'm using git branch under Linux, the result is simply printed in stdout. How can I enforce git to work the same way it works in Linux?

git branch under macOS:

git branch under Linux:

Close voters: this seems like a sane question to me; what's unclear about it? — Jules, Feb 05 '18 at 18:33
Agree with @phd. Absolutely a duplicate. (Can't re-vote after retracting my previous one, though). — Jules, Feb 05 '18 at 23:43

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 05 '18 at 18:35

This is a result of varying defaults for the pager.branch setting in your Git configuration.

For a one-off pagerless git branch, run:

$ git branch --no-pager

To persistently disable the pager on a repo, run:

$ git config --local pager.branch "cat"

And if you want to set this globally, run:

$ git config --global pager.branch "cat"

The git-config docs outline this here.

It should go without saying that if you ever want to revert to using less (or more, or whatever other pager), just replace cat with that other pager in the last two commands.

macOS git branch displays branches in less

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