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Before you start working with Git, let's get your environment ready. In this chapter we install the binary, configure your identity, and verify that everything works.

1. Install Git

The first step is to install the Git binary on the operating system you use. The simplest way is to download the official installer from the download site.

  1. Download the .exe installer from git-scm.com/download/win.
  2. Run the installer. The default options are good enough for most cases; pay attention to these two:
  3. "Adjusting your PATH environment": leave the option "Git from the command line and also from 3rd-party software". This makes Git accessible from cmd, PowerShell, and other terminals.
  4. "Choosing the default terminal editor": leave Vim or switch to your preferred editor.
  5. When it finishes, open Git Bash from the Start menu. It's the terminal we'll use throughout the guide for Git commands on Windows.

On macOS you can install Git in two ways:

  • Xcode Command Line Tools (includes Git):
xcode-select --install
  • Homebrew (recommended for keeping it updated):
brew install git

On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git

On Fedora:

sudo dnf install git

On Arch:

sudo pacman -S git

Windows users: Git Bash is not WSL

Git Bash is a minimal layer that Git for Windows ships with, plus a Unix-style shell (based on MSYS2). It is not the same as WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). If you already use WSL, you can install Git inside your Linux distro as on any Unix system.

2. Verify the installation

Once installed, open your terminal and check the version:

git --version

You should see something like:

git version 2.43.0

If the command is not recognized, check that your PATH includes the Git installation directory (on Windows this is usually C:\Program Files\Git\cmd).

3. Configure your identity

Git needs to know who you are to record authorship for each change. This information is included in every commit you make, so it's important to configure it just once.

Name and email

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

Use the same email as on GitHub

If you want GitHub to display your commits as verified and linked to your profile, user.email must match the email of your account. For multiple emails, you can add aliases on GitHub from Settings → Emails.

Default editor

Git opens an editor when it needs you to write a longer message (for example, in git commit without -m). The default is usually vim, which is not friendly for beginners. We recommend changing it.

git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

Requires the code extension in your PATH.

git config --global core.editor "subl --wait"

git config --global core.editor "nano"

No need to configure it; it's already Git's default editor. If Vim feels unfamiliar, open it and type :q! to quit without saving.

Default branch name

Since Git 2.28 you can set the name of the initial branch when you create a new repository:

git config --global init.defaultBranch main

Default branch: main

Throughout this guide we use main as the default branch, which is the standard name adopted by GitHub, GitLab, and other platforms since 2020.

Other useful configurations

# Enable color highlighting in terminals that support it
git config --global color.ui auto

# Enable autocorrect for common typos in commands
git config --global help.autocorrect 10

# Set the default diff tool
git config --global diff.tool vscode
git config --global difftool.vscode.cmd "code --wait --diff $LOCAL $REMOTE"

4. Verify the configuration

To see all the options you've configured:

git config --global --list

You'll see something like:

user.name=Your Name Surname
user.email=your.email@example.com
core.editor=code --wait
init.defaultBranch=main
color.ui=auto
help.autocorrect=10

5. Three configuration levels

Git supports three configuration levels. It's important to understand when to use each one:

Level Command Scope File
--local (default) git config user.name "X" This repository only .git/config
--global git config --global user.name "X" Your user on this system ~/.gitconfig
--system git config --system user.name "X" All users (Linux/macOS) /etc/gitconfig

See where each option comes from

git config --show-origin --get user.name tells you which file provides each value. It's very useful when a configuration doesn't behave as expected.

Next step

With Git installed and configured, you can move on to SSH Connection with GitHub to authenticate securely against your remote repositories.