tech-studies

Installing and configuring Git

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Installing and configuring Git

Getting a working Git install plus the minimum global configuration — identity, line endings, and auth — so your first commit is correct and reproducible.

Why it matters

A misconfigured install produces commits attributed to root@hostname, mangled line endings that show every file as changed, and credential prompts on every push. Five minutes of one-time global setup prevents weeks of noisy diffs and “who is this author?” confusion across every repo on the machine. Identity in particular (user.email) is baked immutably into each commit.

How it works

Install per platform, then verify:

OSInstallVerify
macOSbrew install git (or Xcode CLT)git --version
Debian/Ubuntuapt install gitgit --version
WindowsGit for Windows installerbundles Git Bash

Modern Git ships in 2.4x+; check with git --version. Then set the essential globals (stored in ~/.gitconfig):

git config --global user.name  "Ada Lovelace"
git config --global user.email "ada@example.com"
git config --global init.defaultBranch main     # not "master"
git config --global core.autocrlf input         # mac/linux; "true" on Windows
git config --global pull.rebase false           # be explicit, avoid warnings

Config is layered: system (/etc/gitconfig) < global (~/.gitconfig, --global) < local (.git/config, default in a repo). Nearer scopes win. See git-config-user-name-user-email-core-editor for the per-key detail and git config --list --show-origin to see where each value comes from.

Example

Fresh laptop, end to end:

brew install git && git --version            → git version 2.45.2
git config --global user.name "Ada Lovelace"
git config --global user.email "ada@example.com"
git config --global core.autocrlf input
git config --get user.email                  → ada@example.com

Per-repo override for a work email: inside the repo, git config user.email "ada@work.com" writes to local scope only.

Pitfalls

  • Forgetting identity before the first commit — it lands as unknown/root; fix retroactively with —amend or rebase.
  • Wrong core.autocrlf — true on macOS/Linux corrupts files; use input there, true on Windows.
  • Editing ~/.gitconfig by hand and breaking syntax — prefer git config commands; a malformed file makes every command error.
  • Leaving init.defaultBranch as master — mismatches GitHub’s main and breaks push -u origin main.

See also

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