Status: Deprecated

This article covers a version of Ubuntu that is no longer supported. If you are currently operate a server running Ubuntu 12.04, we highly recommend upgrading or migrating to a supported version of Ubuntu:

• Upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04.
• Upgrade from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04
• Migrate the server data to a supported version

Reason: Ubuntu 12.04 reached end of life (EOL) on April 28, 2017 and no longer receives security patches or updates. This guide is no longer maintained.

See Instead:
This guide might still be useful as a reference, but may not work on other Ubuntu releases. If available, we strongly recommend using a guide written for the version of Ubuntu you are using. You can use the search functionality at the top of the page to find a more recent version.

What the Red Means

The lines that the user needs to enter or customize will be in red in this tutorial! The rest should mostly be copy-and-pastable.

About Git

Git is a distributed version control system released to the public in 2005. The program allows for non-linear development of projects, and can handle large amounts of data effectively by storing it on the local server. This tutorial will cover two ways to install Git.

How to Install Git with Apt-Get

Installing Git with apt-get is a quick and easy process. The program installs on the virtual private server with one command:

sudo apt-get install git-core

After it finishes downloading, you will have Git installed and ready to use.

How to Install Git from Source

If you are eager to download the most recent version of Git, it is generally a good idea to install it from the source.

Quickly run apt-get update to make sure that you download the most recent packages to your VPS.

sudo apt-get update

Prior to installing Git itself, download all of the required dependancies:

sudo apt-get install libcurl4-gnutls-dev libexpat1-dev gettext libz-dev libssl-dev build-essential

Once they are installed, you can download the latest version of Git from the google code page.

wget https://git-core.googlecode.com/files/git-1.8.1.2.tar.gz

After it downloads, untar the file and switch into that directory:

tar -zxf git-1.8.1.2.tar.gz

cd git-1.8.1.2

If you want to do a global install, install it once as yourself and once as root, using the sudo prefix:

make prefix=/usr/local all
sudo make prefix=/usr/local install

If you need to update Git in the future, you can use Git itself to do it.

git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git

How to Setup Git

After Git is installed, whether from apt-get or from the source, you need to copy your username and email in the gitconfig file. You can access this file at ~/.gitconfig.

Opening it following a fresh Git install would reveal a completely blank page:

sudo nano ~/.gitconfig

You can use the follow commands to add in the required information.

git config --global user.name "NewUser"
git config --global user.email newuser@example.com

You can see all of your settings with this command:

git config --list

If you avoid putting in your username and email, git will later attempt to fill it in for you, and you may end up with a message like this:

[master 0d9d21d] initial project version
 Committer: root 
Your name and email address were configured automatically based
on your username and hostname. Please check that they are accurate.
You can suppress this message by setting them explicitly:

    git config --global user.name "Your Name"
    git config --global user.email you@example.com

After doing this, you may fix the identity used for this commit with:

    git commit --amend --reset-author

See More

This tutorial covered how to install Git on your virtual private server. Stay tuned for a second tutorial on Git Basics.