Git quickstartEdit

Created , updated

Installation

See my installation notes at "Installing Git 1.5.2.3 on Mac OS X Tiger".

Optional modules

See:

Initial configuration

# personalize these with your own name and email address
git config --global user.name "Wincent Colaiuta"
git config --global user.email "example@example.com"

# decorate logs
git config --global log.decorate short

# colorize output (Git 1.5.5 or later)
git config --global color.ui auto

# and from 1.5.4 onwards, this will works:
git config --global color.interactive auto

# user-friendly paging of some commands which don't use the pager by default
# (other commands like "git log" already do)
# to override pass --no-pager or GIT_PAGER=cat
git config --global pager.status true
git config --global pager.show-branch true

# shortcut aliases
git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.ci commit
git config --global alias.co checkout

# use Apple opendiff (FileMerge) for resolving conflicts
# it will be invoked when you do a "git mergetool"
git config --global merge.tool opendiff

# this so I can submit patches using git send-email
git config --global sendemail.smtpserver smtp.example.com
git config --global sendemail.aliasesfile ~/.gitaliases
git config --global sendemail.aliasfiletype mailrc

# as of Git 1.5.4 you'll also be able to add this for SMTP-AUTH
git config --global sendemail.smtpuser "user@example.com"
git config --global sendemail.smtppass password
git config --global sendemail.smtpssl true

# shortcut aliases for submitting patches for Git itself
# refer to the "See also" section below for additional information
echo "alias git git@vger.kernel.org" >> ~/.gitaliases
echo "alias junio gitster@pobox.com" >> ~/.gitaliases
echo "alias me example@example.com" >> ~/.gitaliases

# another feature that will be available in 1.5.4 onwards
# this is useful when you use topic branches for grouping together logically related changes
git config --global format.numbered auto

# turn on new 1.5 features which break backwards compatibility
git config --global core.legacyheaders false
git config --global repack.usedeltabaseoffset true

The --global switch causes changes to be written into ~/.gitconfig rather than the repository-level config.

For more information on configuration type man git-config in the Terminal.

Useful aliases

# support habits from Subversion/CVS
git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.ci commit

# show difference between the HEAD and the index
git config --global alias.staged "diff --cached"

# show difference between working tree and the index; seeing as this is just a synonym for "diff" I almost never use it
git config --global alias.unstaged diff

# show staged and unstaged changes (what would be committed with "git commit -a"); I almost never use this
git config --global alias.both "diff HEAD"

# quick access to oneline log format
git config --global alias.oneline "log --oneline"

# I'm always amending, so "git amend" is easier than "git ci --amend"
git config --global alias.amend "commit --amend"

# misc
git config --global alias.abbrev 'rev-parse --short'

Global ignores

Directory-specific ignores can be specified in a file called .gitignore at the top of the directory.

Repository-wide ignores can be specified in .git/info/exclude.

Global ignores can be placed in a file of your choosing (for example, ~/.gitignore) and turned on using:

git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore

An example ~/.gitignore file might be as simple as:

.DS_Store

For more information type:

man gitignore

PGP setup

Git supports signing of tags using PGP keys.

# download latest version of GnuPG
wget "ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gnupg/gnupg-1.4.7.tar.bz2"

# verify integrity of download
openssl sha1 gnupg-1.4.7.tar.bz2

# extract
tar xjvf gnupg-1.4.7.tar.bz2
cd gnupg-1.4.7

# build
./configure
make
make check

# install
sudo make install

# create a new private/public key pair
gpg --gen-key

# export ASCII version of public key
# (to upload to homepage or public keyserver)
gpg --export -a

To actually sign a tag you pass the -s (or -u) flag to git-tag.

gitk setup

gitk works out of the box; for example:

# clone an existing repository
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git

# inspect repository history using gitk
cd git
gitk

Although gitk works with no modifications, it can be tailored to use more readable fonts; I added these lines to my ~/.gitk file:

set mainfont {Monaco 10}
set textfont {Monaco 10}
set uifont {Monaco 10}

A superior alternative to gitk is QGit, although it requires compilation.

See also