Setup and installation¶

In this workshop, we are using Git and GitHub.com.

Git is a version control system that lets you track who made changes, when those changes were made, and what they were. It allows for easily updating a version of your work.

GitHub.com allows you to host repositories online to collaborate with others on your projects. You will need a free GitHub account for part of this workshop.

Register for a GitHub Account¶

Go to GitHub.com, register for an account, and verify it.

Git Installation Instructions¶

Windows¶

Install Git Bash (also called Git for Windows). Detailed instructions can be found via the Software Carpentry.

MacOS¶

Open Terminal. It should be located in Applications/Utilities. You can use Spotlight to locate it, as well (cmd+space and type “Terminal”).

Type which git and press Return. If it prints a path (e.g. /usr/bin/git), Git is already installed.

If no path is printed, follow the instructions at Software Carpentry for MacOS.

Linux¶

Open the terminal. Type which git and press Enter. If it prints a path (e.g. /usr/bin/git), Git is already installed. If not, for Debian/Ubuntu run sudo apt-get install git and for Fedora run sudo dnf install git.

Configure git global settings¶

When we use Git on a new computer for the first time, we need to configure a few settings. Below are a few examples of configurations we will set as we get started with Git:

our name and email address
what our preferred text editor is
and that we want to use these settings globally (i.e., for every project).

Windows: Open “Git Bash”, or run the command bash in your Command Prompt.

MacOS: Open a bash shell in Terminal.

Linux: Use your terminal.

In the bash shell, run the following commands (with your information). The leading $ indicates that the command should be run in bash; do not insert an additional $ in your own terminal. If these configuration commands are successful, nothing will print to the terminal.

To use git commands, we use the syntax git SOME_COMMAND. We will be using git config with some added parameters to set up git. We will also add the flag --global to make sure these settings apply to any of our future repositories.

Name configuration¶

To configure your username, run the following code, replacing “InigoMontoya” with your GitHub username.

Bash

$ git config --global user.name "InigoMontoya"

Email configuration¶

Log in to GitHub.com
Click on your profile icon at the top right corner
Go to Settings
Click on Emails in the left menu
Select the check box “Keep my email addresses private” and use the private github.com-supplied email listed in the configuration below the check box. You can highlight and copy it with Ctrl+C or cmd+C (Mac), and paste to the command line with Ctrl+V or cmd+V.

Again, remember to replace the email listed below with the private email mentioned above.

Bash

$ git config --global user.email "1234username@users.noreply.github.com"

Line Heading configuration¶

As with other keys, when you hit Return on your keyboard, your computer encodes this input as a character. Different operating systems use different character(s) to represent the end of a line. Because Git uses these characters to compare files, it may cause unexpected issues when editing a file on different machines.

Windows

Bash

$ git config --global core.autocrlf true

MacOS and Linux

Bash

$ git config --global core.autocrlf input

Editor configuration¶

In these sessions, we will be using a basic editor called nano. There are other ways to configure for more popular editors here.

Bash

$ git config --global core.editor "nano -w"

Check your settings at any time with:

Bash

$ git config --list

Recap:¶

git config --global: set up your settings across all your repos

Resources¶

This workshop has been adapted from the Software Carpentry.