How to Install Git from Source
If you are eager to download the most recent version of Git, it is generally a good idea to install it from the source.
Quickly run apt-get update to make sure that you download the most recent packages to your VPS.
sudo apt-get update
Prior to installing Git itself, download all of the required dependancies:
sudo apt-get install libcurl4-gnutls-dev libexpat1-dev gettext libz-dev libssl-dev build-essential
Once they are installed, you can download the latest version of Git from the google code page.
wget https://git-core.googlecode.com/files/git-1.8.1.2.tar.gz
After it downloads, untar the file and switch into that directory:
tar -zxf git-1.8.1.2.tar.gz
cd git-1.8.1.2
If you want to do a global install, install it once as yourself and once as root, using the sudo prefix:
make prefix=/usr/local all sudo make prefix=/usr/local install
If you need to update Git in the future, you can use Git itself to do it.
git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git
How to Setup Git
After Git is installed, whether from apt-get or from the source, you need to copy your username and email in the gitconfig file. You can access this file at ~/.gitconfig.
Opening it following a fresh Git install would reveal a completely blank page:
sudo nano ~/.gitconfig
You can use the follow commands to add in the required information.
git config --global user.name "NewUser" git config --global user.email [email protected]
You can see all of your settings with this command:
git config --list
If you avoid putting in your username and email, git will later attempt to fill it in for you, and you may end up with a message like this:
[master 0d9d21d] initial project version
Committer: root <root@droplet1.(none)>
Your name and email address were configured automatically based
on your username and hostname. Please check that they are accurate.
You can suppress this message by setting them explicitly:
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email [email protected]
After doing this, you may fix the identity used for this commit with:
git commit --amend --reset-author
See More
This tutorial covered how to install Git on your virtual private server. Stay tuned for a second tutorial on Git Basics.