Version control has become an indispensable tool in modern software development. Git is a system for tracking changes in computer files and collaboration with those files among multiple developers.
It is primarily used for source code management in software development, but it can be used to keep track of changes in any set of files. Why use Git? Version control systems allow you to track changes, revert to previous stages, and branch off from the base code to create alternative versions of files and directories.
One of the most popular version control systems is Git. Many projects maintain their files in a Git repository, and sites like GitHub and Bitbucket have made sharing and contributing to code with Git easier than ever.
In this guide, we will show you how to install Git on a private VPS or dedicated server operated by CentOS 7. You may install the software in different ways – from repository or build from source.
The easiest way – installing Git with Yum
This is the fastest way to get Git working, but the Git version that is installed this way may be older than the newest version available. Consider Yum repository delay. If you need the latest release, choose compiling git from source.
We will use yum, CentOS’s native package manager to install software from repositories:
sudo yum install git
To check that Git is working correctly, try running Git’s built-in version check:
git --version
Now let’s got to Git setting-up.
Git settings
After having Git installed, you will need to configure it and provide information about yourself. This info will be attached to commits you will upload (in message files). Use the Git config command to provide the name and email address that you would like to use into your commits:
git config --global user.name "Your Name" git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
To confirm that these configurations were added successfully, we can see all of the configuration items that have been set by typing:
git config --list user.name=Your Name [email protected]
This configuration will save you from seeing an error message and having to revise commits after you submit them. Additional configurations could be done freely according to the software documentation.