Git is a distributed version control system. If you have previously installed Xcode and its command-line tools, you may already have Git installed. Find out by entering the following command:
git --version
If you see something like git version 2.8.3, then you already have Git. If not, skip to the next section to install Homebrew. If you have Git, but the version number is lower than 2.8.3 (as of May 25, 2016—Happy 39th birthday, Star Wars!), then your version of Git is out of date. Continue to the next step to install Homebrew.
If your Git version is up-to-date, skip to the Git Configuration section.
Homebrew is a package manager for OS X. That is, it manages the installation of certain software—especially UNIX tools—and the installed versions of that software.
Install Homebrew with the following command:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
If you do not have Git installed at all, or if your version is out of date, run the following command to install the latest version:
brew install git
Now check your Git version again.
git --version
You should see an up-to-date version number.
The next time a new version of Git is released, just type the following commands:
brew update # This updates Homebrew so it knows about the latest versions.
brew upgrade git # This upgrades Git itself.
Next, tell Git what name and email address it should use to sign code that you’ve authored. Enter the following commands, substituting your actual name and email address:
git config --global user.name "Your Full Name"
git config --global user.email "youremailaddress@example.com"
GitHub Desktop is a very nice, free graphical interface for Git. Although we’ll use Git from the command-line a great deal, we’ll also look at how GitHub Desktop can make certain tasks easier.