You can’t use Git until you make it available on your computer. There are a couple different ways you can install Git and make it available for use. The option you choose will depend on the system you are running.
I have recently started using Git Kraken by Axosoft for my personal projects and I am really amazed by how great it is. It is cross platform and is available for Linux, Mac and Windows. Though I don’t get to use it all the time, it is a great tool. Git Alternatives. The most popular alternative is Mercurial SCM, which is both free and Open Source.If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked 28 alternatives to Git so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement.
In this article, I will show you how to install Git on a MAC OS, as well as how to install Git on LINUX.
A couple of things you will want to make note of while interacting with Git.
- Even if you already have Git installed it is a good idea to update to the latest version.
- All of the commands below should work, even on the older versions of Git. They may act a little differently but should work. Git is very good at preserving backward compatibility. Any version after 2.0 should work just fine.
How To Install Git on MAC OS
There are a couple of ways to install Git on MAC OS. The easiest way to do it would probably be to install the Xcode Command Line Tools. This will work on Mavericks (10.9) or above, so it should cover you. If you are running on OS older than that I would recommend you look into upgrading that first.
If your MAC OS is good to go simply run git from the Terminal the very first time. Here is what that would look like:
If it isn’t installed you will be prompted to install. If it is installed, then the above command should output the current version installed.
If you need or want a more up-to-date version, then you can install Git on MAC OS via a binary installer. There is a MAC OS Git installer that is maintained and made available for download on the Git website, at https://git-scm.com/download/mac.
Finally, a third option of installing Git on MAC OS is to install it as part of the GitHub for MAC install.
They have a GUI Git tool that has an option to install command line tools as well. You can download this tool from the GitHub for MAC website, at https://mac.github.com.
How To Install Git on Linux
More often than not you can install Git on Linux via a binary installer through the package management tool that comes with your distribution.
If you’re on Fedora or other closely related RPM-based distribution, like RHEL or CentOS, you can use dnf:
$ sudo dnf install git-all
If you happen to be on a Debian-based distribution, like Ubuntu, try using apt:
Installation For Other Unix Distributions
Gentoo
# emerge –ask –verbose dev-vcs/git
Arch Linux
openSUSE
# zypper install git
Mageia
Nix/NixOS
# nix-env -i git
FreeBSD
Solaris 9/10/11 (OpenCSW)
# pkgutil -i git
Best Mac Git App Tutorial
Solaris 11 Express
OpenBSD
Best Mac Git App Developer
# pkg_add git
Alpine
Slitaz
Best Mac Git Client
$ tazpkg get-install git
Author: Jeremy Holcombe
Growing up in Hawaii, Jeremy started his freelance writing career doing resumes, business plans, article writing, and everything in between. He now specializes in online marketing and content writing and is part of the Content Marketing Team at GreenGeeks.