Install Git

Every other tool on this blog assumes you already have Git. So we start here.

This is post 2 of 10 in the Setup Toolbox series. Without Git you can't clone a repo, can't build most dev libraries from source, and can't push a single line to open source. It's the prerequisite, so it goes near the front.

macOS

Easiest path is Homebrew. macOS also ships a git shim that nags you to install the Xcode Command Line Tools, and that works fine, but the brew build updates faster.

# install git via homebrew

brew install git

No Homebrew yet? See Install Homebrew.

Linux

Reach for your system package manager.

# install git on debian / ubuntu

sudo apt update && sudo apt install git

# install git on fedora / rhel

sudo dnf install git

# install git on arch

sudo pacman -S git

Windows

Grab Git for Windows from git-scm.com/download/win. The installer bundles Git Bash, which is the bit you want. The Windows command prompt and Git don't get along, and Git Bash hands you a proper Unix-style shell instead.

Prefer the command line? Use winget.

# install git via winget on windows

winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

Configure your identity

Git won't commit a thing until it knows who you are. Set your name and email globally, using the same email you use on GitHub.

# set your name globally

git config --global user.name "Your Name"

# set your email globally

git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

I also flip on a couple of defaults that save grief later.

# default branch name on new repos

git config --global init.defaultBranch main

# rebase by default on pull, no merge commits

git config --global pull.rebase true

Verify

# print git version

git --version

You want to see git version 2.40+ or higher. Older builds miss features like sparse-checkout and partial-clone that some tutorials lean on.

Common gotchas

• HTTPS vs SSH for GitHub: HTTPS asks for a token on every push, SSH uses a key. For any repo you'll push to more than once, set up SSH keys. Run ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "you@example.com", then add the public key to GitHub.
• Line endings on Windows: Git on Windows can rewrite line endings (CRLF and LF) on checkout. For cross-platform projects, set git config --global core.autocrlf input.
• First push fails with "refusing to merge unrelated histories": usually means you ran init both locally and on GitHub. Run git pull --allow-unrelated-histories origin main once, then carry on as normal.

Git installed, identity set. You're ready to clone any repo and run any tool that builds from source. Next up in the series: the package manager that half these commands quietly assume.