Links: Homepage | Downloads
Dependencies: None
Version: 1.7.8.4

Git is a distributed version control system that was initially designed and developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. Every Git working directory is a complete repository with history and revision tracking capabilities.

Get the Code

Switch to /usr/local/src and download the source package.

cd /usr/local/src
curl --remote-name http://git-core.googlecode.com/files/git-VERSION.tar.gz

Extract the archive and move into the folder.

tar -xzvf git-VERSION.tar.gz
cd git-VERSION

Compile and Install

Configure, compile and install into /usr/local/git-VERSION.

make configure
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/git-VERSION
make all
make install

Create a symbolic link that points /usr/local/git to /usr/local/git-VERSION.

ln -s git-VERSION /usr/local/git

Documentation

Git can be compiled with the Man Pages included but it requires dependencies that can be problematic. The maintainers are aware and therefore provide a pre-compiled version available for download.

Switch to /usr/local/src and download the documentation.

cd /usr/local/src
curl --remote-name http://git-core.googlecode.com/files/git-manpages-VERSION.tar.gz

Extract the documentation to /usr/local/git/man.

mkdir -p /usr/local/git/man
tar -xzvof git-manpages-VERSION.tar.gz -C /usr/local/git/man

Shell

Add the following lines to your Bash startup script to put Git and its Man Pages into your path.

echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export MANPATH=/usr/local/git/man:$MANPATH' >> ~/.bash_profile

Load the new shell configurations.

source ~/.bash_profile

Verify the Installation

To verify that you have correctly installed Git, execute the following command. It should display git version VERSION.

git --version