Step 0: installing Git

Before you set up a repository, make sure Git is installed. In the terminal run git --version. If the command is not found, install Git using the instructions for your OS below, then check the version again.

Installer or winget
powershell
# Download and run the installer from git-scm.com
# Or in PowerShell:
winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget
Identity (git config)

Git records the author on every commit. Name and email are set via git config; without sensible values you get warnings or bad metadata in history.

Click a line to break down the command parameters ▼
bash
1
git config --global user.name "Mike Smith"
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2
git config --global user.email "mike@example.com"
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3
git config --list
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Configuration levels
Where Git looks for settings and which level wins
Useful extras

For convenience in the terminal it helps to enable colored output and set an editor for commit messages. On Windows, when mixing with Linux tooling, configure line endings (CRLF/LF) so diff is not noisy.

Typical extra settings (example)
Colors
git config --global color.ui auto — readable git log, git diff, etc.
Editor
git config --global core.editor "code --wait" — VS Code for commit text
Line endings
git config --global core.autocrlf true (Windows) — softens CRLF vs LF issues
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To avoid typing a password on every push to GitHub, you later set up SSH keys or a credential helper. For purely local commits and learning, correct user.name and user.email are enough.