🛠️ Installation & Setup

Installing Git

Windows Users

The easiest way for Windows users is to download the official installer. Go to https://git-scm.com, download, and click Next through the installation. During installation, there's an option called "Adjusting your PATH environment" — it's recommended to select Git from the command line and also from 3rd-party software.

💡 Tip: After installing on Windows, you'll get Git Bash, which is a Linux-like terminal where you can use Linux-style commands. It's highly recommended to use it instead of CMD or PowerShell for Git operations.

macOS Users

macOS users can simply type in the terminal:

# macOS will automatically prompt you to install Xcode Command Line Tools
git --version
git version 2.39.5 (Apple Git-154)

Or install the latest version with Homebrew:

brew install git

Linux Users

Linux users have it even easier — just use your package manager:

# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt update && sudo apt install git

# CentOS 8+ / Fedora (CentOS 7 uses sudo yum install git)
sudo dnf install git

# Arch Linux (you're power users — you probably don't need my help)
sudo pacman -S git

After installation, verify:

git --version
git version 2.43.0

Initial Configuration — Introducing Yourself

After installing Git, the first thing to do is tell it who you are. It's like going to the gym for the first time — you need to get a membership card first:

# Set your name (will appear in every commit record)
git config --global user.name "Your Name"

# Set your email (same as above)
git config --global user.email "your.email@example.com"

⚠️ Warning: --global is a global configuration, meaning all Git repositories on your computer will use this name and email. If you want to use different identities for work and personal projects, remove --global and set it individually in each repository directory.

Configuration Levels

Git configuration has three levels, like wearing three layers of clothing — from inner to outer, with decreasing priority:

Level	Flag	Config file location	Scope
System	--system	/etc/gitconfig	All users and all repositories on the system
Global	--global	~/.gitconfig	All repositories for the current user
Repository	--local (default)	.git/config	Current repository only

# View all configuration
git config --list
user.name=Your Name
user.email=your.email@example.com
core.editor=vim
color.ui=auto
init.defaultBranch=main

# View a specific configuration
git config user.name
Your Name

Some Useful Default Configurations

# Set default branch name to main (Git 2.28+)
git config --global init.defaultBranch main

# Set default editor (options: vim / nano / code)
git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

# Enable colored output in Git (makes it look nice!)
git config --global color.ui auto

# Set pull to use rebase by default (advanced, covered later)
git config --global pull.rebase true

# Configure useful aliases (detailed in advanced tips chapter)
git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.br branch
git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline --graph --all"

Setting Up SSH Keys — Your Key to GitHub

When you start using GitHub or GitLab, you'll need to authenticate every push/pull. Using HTTPS requires entering your password every time, which gets annoying fast. SSH keys are like a dedicated key — once set up, you won't need to enter your password each time.

# Generate SSH key pair
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your.email@example.com"
Generating public/private ed25519 key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/yourname/.ssh/id_ed25519):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Your identification has been saved in /home/yourname/.ssh/id_ed25519
Your public key has been saved in /home/yourname/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

# View the public key content
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIG7x... your.email@example.com

💡 Tip: Copy the public key content from above, go to GitHub → Settings → SSH and GPG keys → New SSH key, and paste it in. From then on, when you use the SSH address (git@github.com:username/repo.git) to clone repositories, you won't need to enter a password.