This lesson is being piloted (Beta version)

Setting Up Git

Overview

Teaching: 5 min
Exercises: 0 min
Questions
  • How do I get set up to use Git?

Objectives
  • Configure git the first time it is used on a computer.

  • Understand the meaning of the --global configuration flag.

When we use Git on a new computer for the first time, we need to configure a few things. Below are a few examples of configurations we will set as we get started with Git:

On a command line, Git commands are written as git verb, where verb is what we actually want to do. So here is how to set things up so that GitHub recognizes that it’s you behind the guest account:

$ git config --global user.name "Your Name"
$ git config --global user.email "The email address you connect to GitHub with"
$ git config --global color.ui "auto"

Please use your own name and email address. This user name and email will be associated with your subsequent Git activity, which means that any changes pushed to GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab or another Git host server in a later lesson will include this information. If you are concerned about privacy, please review GitHub’s instructions for keeping your email address private.

Next, choose which text editor you prefer to use. (I’ll be using nano because many of the lessons are written in it, but you may see me make vi shortcuts by reflex occasionally.)

Editor Configuration command
Atom $ git config --global core.editor "atom --wait"
nano $ git config --global core.editor "nano -w"
Text Wrangler (Mac) $ git config --global core.editor "edit -w"
Sublime Text (Mac) $ git config --global core.editor "subl -n -w"
Sublime Text (Win, 32-bit install) $ git config --global core.editor "'c:/program files (x86)/sublime text 3/sublime_text.exe' -w"
Sublime Text (Win, 64-bit install) $ git config --global core.editor "'c:/program files/sublime text 3/sublime_text.exe' -w"
Notepad++ (Win, 32-bit install) $ git config --global core.editor "'c:/program files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin"
Notepad++ (Win, 64-bit install) $ git config --global core.editor "'c:/program files/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin"
Kate (Linux) $ git config --global core.editor "kate"
Gedit (Linux) $ git config --global core.editor "gedit --wait --new-window"
Scratch (Linux) $ git config --global core.editor "scratch-text-editor"
emacs $ git config --global core.editor "emacs"
vim $ git config --global core.editor "vim"

It is possible to reconfigure the text editor for Git whenever you want to change it.

Exiting Vim

Note that vim is the default editor for for many programs, if you haven’t used vim before and wish to exit a session, type Esc then :q! and Enter.

The four commands we just ran above only need to be run once: the flag --global tells Git to use the settings for every project, in your user account, on this computer.

You can check your settings at any time:

$ git config --list

You can change your configuration as many times as you want: just use the same commands to choose another editor or update your email address.

Git Help and Manual

Always remember that if you forget a git command, you can access the list of command by using -h and access the git manual by using –help :

$ git config -h
$ git config --help

Key Points

  • Use git config to configure a user name, email address, editor, and other preferences once per machine.