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3. Setting up 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:

  • our name and email address,
  • what our preferred text editor is,
  • and that we want to use these settings globally (i.e. for every project).

On a command line, Git commands are written as git verb options, where verb is what we actually want to do and options is additional optional information which may be needed for the verb.

Configuring name and email address for Git

Following 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 after this lesson will include this information.

For this lesson, we will be interacting with GitHub and so the email address used should be the same as the one used when setting up your GitHub account. If you are concerned about privacy, please review GitHub’s instructions for keeping your email address private.

$ git config --global user.name "Your Name"
$ git config --global user.email "Email address"
Keeping your email private

If you elect to use a private email address with GitHub, then use GitHub’s no-reply email address for the user.email value. It looks like ID+username@users.noreply.github.com. You can look up your own address in your GitHub email settings.

Git HELP AND MANUAL

Always remember that if you forget the subcommands or options of a git command, you can access the relevant list of options typing git <command> -h or access the corresponding Git manual by typing git <command> --help, e.g.:

$ git config -h 
$ git config --help

!!! Configuring Default Branch name to main ( not needed for MacOS)