Make sure Git is installed, you can check Git version use git --version
command in your terminal.
We will configure Git using git config
command. These commands set values on a global or local project level and correspond to .gitconfig
text file.
Configuration level
Configuration level is specified following git config
with a --
double-dash as an option.
There are three configuration levels:
- Global level (
global
) - Local level (
local
) - System level (
system
)
By default, git config
will write to a local level if no configuration option is passed.
Local level
Local level configuration is applied to the context repository. Configure to a local level we type :
git config --local
Local configuration values are stored in a file in the repo’s .git
directory (hidden): .git/config
Global level
Global level configuration is user-specific, applies to all repositories of the current OS user. To configure at a global level we do:
git config --global
The global configuration values are stored in a user’s home directory ~/.gitconfig
if you are using a Unix like system.
System level
System level configuration is applied to all users of an OS. It covers ever user’s repos. Use the following command to configure at system level:
git config --system
The system level configuration file resides at the system root path $(prefix)/etc/gitconfig
on Unix systems.
User configuration
Git commit uses user information, to set user name and email address you use git config
command:
git config --global user.name "John Doe"
git config --global user.email johndoe@example.com
Your editor
You can configure the default text editor that will be used when Git needs you to type in a message. If not configured, Git uses system default editor. This is an example of Vim as the editor:
git config --global core.editor "vim"
Check configuration settings
If you want to check your configuration settings, you can use the git config --list
command to list all the settings Git can find at that point:
git config --list
user.name=John Doe
user.email=johndoe@example.com
color.status=auto
color.branch=auto
...
You can also check what Git thinks a specific key’s value is by typing git config <key>
:
git config user.name
John Doe
Type :q
to quit view mode
Default branch name
By default Git will create a branch called mater
when you create a new repository with git init
. But you can set a different name for the initial branch.
git config --global init.defaultBranch <branch_name>
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