Git Installation & Global Configuration: Windows, macOS and Linux

Before writing any code or tracking repositories, you must install the official Git binaries on your development machine and configure your author identity. Every Git commit you create embeds this identity permanently into the commit history.

Step 1: Installing Git Across Operating Systems

1. Installing Git on Microsoft Windows

For Windows developers, the official installer provides Git Bash (a lightweight Unix-like shell environment that includes standard Unix command-line utilities like ls, grep, cat, and ssh):

1. Navigate to the official Git website: git-scm.com/download/win.
2. Download the 64-bit Git for Windows Setup installer executable.
3. Run the installer. Keep the default selections recommended by the installer:
   • Default editor: Select Visual Studio Code (or your preferred editor).
   • Adjusting your PATH environment: Select "Git from the command line and also from 3rd-party software".
   • Line ending conversions: Select "Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings" (core.autocrlf = true).
   • Terminal emulator: Select "Use MinTTY (the default terminal of MSYS2)".
4. Click Install and finish the setup.

2. Installing Git on macOS

The cleanest way to install and maintain Git on macOS is using the Homebrew package manager:

# Install Homebrew if not already present
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

# Install latest Git version
brew install git

Alternatively, opening Terminal and typing git --version will prompt Apple's Xcode Command Line Tools installer if Git is not yet installed.

3. Installing Git on Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS)

On Linux distributions, use the native system package manager:

# For Ubuntu / Debian / Linux Mint:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install git -y

# For Fedora / Red Hat Enterprise Linux / Rocky Linux:
sudo dnf install git -y

# For Arch Linux:
sudo pacman -S git

Step 2: Verifying the Installation

Open your terminal (PowerShell, Command Prompt, Git Bash, or Terminal on Mac/Linux) and verify the installed version:

$ git --version
git version 2.44.0

Step 3: Essential First-Time Global Configuration

Git comes with a built-in configuration tool called git config that lets you set configuration variables. These variables are stored in three different levels:

• --system: Applied to all users on the operating system (stored in /etc/gitconfig).
• --global: Applied to your specific user profile across all repositories (stored in ~/.gitconfig).
• --local: Applied only to the current repository (stored in .git/config).

You must set your author name and email address. This is critical because every single Git commit binds this metadata into its cryptographic hash:

# Set your global username
git config --global user.name "John Doe"

# Set your global email address (use your GitHub-associated email)
git config --global user.email "john.doe@example.com"

Configuring Default Initial Branch Name (main)

Historically, Git defaulted to naming the primary branch master. In 2020, GitHub and the open-source community adopted main as the modern, inclusive standard. Configure Git to automatically initialize new repositories with main:

git config --global init.defaultBranch main

Setting Line Ending Handling (core.autocrlf)

Windows uses Carriage Return and Line Feed (CRLF) for line breaks, while macOS and Linux use Line Feed (LF). To prevent spurious diffs across cross-platform teams:

# On Windows:
git config --global core.autocrlf true

# On macOS and Linux:
git config --global core.autocrlf input

Setting Your Default Code Editor

# To use Visual Studio Code:
git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

# To use Nano:
git config --global core.editor "nano"

# To use Vim:
git config --global core.editor "vim"

Step 4: Inspecting Your Active Configuration

To inspect all configured values and see which file they originate from, run:

git config --list --show-origin