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Installing & Configuring Git

Installing & Configuring Git

Section titled “Installing & Configuring Git”

💻 Installing Git

Section titled “💻 Installing Git”

Windows:

Terminal window
# Download from https://git-scm.com and run the installer
# Or use winget:
winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

macOS:

Terminal window
# Via Homebrew (recommended)
brew install git


# Or the official installer from https://git-scm.com

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

Terminal window
sudo apt update
sudo apt install git

Verify installation:

Terminal window
git --version
# Output example: git version 2.43.0

⚙️ First-Time Configuration

Section titled “⚙️ First-Time Configuration”

Git needs to know who you are. Every commit gets tagged with your name and email.

Terminal window
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your.email@example.com"

Useful config options:

Terminal window
# Default branch name (instead of "master")
git config --global init.defaultBranch main


# Colorful output
git config --global color.ui auto


# Preferred text editor for commit messages
git config --global core.editor "code --wait"  # VS Code


# Line ending handling (Windows)
git config --global core.autocrlf true


# View all settings
git config --list

Result: Your identity is set. Future commits will show “Your Name your.email@example.com” as the author.

🔑 SSH Keys (for GitHub)

Section titled “🔑 SSH Keys (for GitHub)”

SSH keys let you push code to GitHub without typing your password every time.

1. Generate a key:

Terminal window
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your.email@example.com"
# Press Enter to accept defaults
# Optionally set a passphrase

2. Start the SSH agent:

Terminal window
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

3. Copy the public key:

Terminal window
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
# Copy the entire output

4. Add to GitHub:

  • Go to GitHub.com → Settings → SSH and GPG keys → New SSH key
  • Paste the key and save

5. Test the connection:

Terminal window
ssh -T git@github.com
# Output: Hi username! You've successfully authenticated.

Result: You can now git push and git pull without a password prompt.

🚀 Verify Everything

Section titled “🚀 Verify Everything”
Terminal window
# Check Git version
git --version


# Check your identity
git config user.name
git config user.email


# Test SSH connection
ssh -T git@github.com

In Simple Words

Section titled “In Simple Words”
  • Install Git from git-scm.com or your package manager
  • Set your name and email with git config --global — every commit needs this
  • Set init.defaultBranch main so new repos use main instead of master
  • SSH keys let you connect to GitHub without typing passwords
  • Always verify with git --version and ssh -T git@github.com