Install Git

Note: instructions on command line tools commonly include the prompt, usually a dollar sign ($). Do not type the prompt when you are following the instructions; you only want what follows the prompt.

Installing Git on Windows and Mac

1. Download the latest version of Git for your operating system by going to http://git-scm.com/downloads.
2. Run the installer. For Windows, you can accept the defaults as they are all reasonable. On the "Adjusting your PATH environment" screen choose "Run Git from the Windows command prompt.")
3. To confirm Git has installed correctly, open a terminal window and at the prompt, type 'git' (without the quotes). A list of the most common Git commands will print to the screen.

If you use Macports on Mac, you may prefer the following:

$ sudo port install git-core +bash_completion +doc +gitweb +svn

Installing Git on Linux
You can find more instructions for your particular distribution at http://git-scm.com/downloads/linux
On RPM-based systems (RHEL, Fedora Core, CentOS, ...), open Terminal and type:
$ sudo yum install git

On apt-based systems (Debian, Ubuntu, ...), open Terminal and type:
$ sudo apt-get install git-core

Moving Around on the command line
These are some commonly used commands for moving around from the command line. You should try these out and get familiar with at least these basics so you can use Git effectively from the command line.

• pwd (present working directory)
• ls (list) for information
• cd (change directory). For example, if you are already in a Drupal root directory, type the following to move to your modules and then themes directories (using .. before a path moves up one directory):
  $ cd modules
$ cd ../themes
• CTRL + C will cancel an action.

Basic Configuration
These next commands are a simple way to update Git's configuration file, .gitconfig. The file is a hidden file that normally lives in your user home directory (e.g. on a Mac, this would be in /Users/myusername/.gitconfig). When you run these commands you won't see any response in the terminal, but your .gitconfig file will be updated.

1. Tell Git who you are. Use whatever name you would like to have publicly associated with your commits. Note that if your name has a space in it, you have to put the quotes around it.
   $ git config --global user.name "Your Name"
2. Provide your email address where anyone with questions about your commits can contact you.
   $ git config --global user.email yourname@example.com
3. Set Git to use safe line endings.
   $ git config --global core.safecrlf true

Download a Project Using Git
Now you can start to use Git to download, or clone, code from Drupal.org. First we'll download a module. You will download the code directly to where you run the command from. For a module, you would typically download it into the proper place within a Drupal site, e.g. drupalroot/modules, so you would want to first cd to that directory and then proceed with a git clone command.

1. Move into the correct directory for your project, e.g. cd modules from your Drupal root.
2. Find a project on Drupal.org (for example, Admin Menu). On the project page, click the "Version control" tab (near the top of the page).
3. Select a version of Drupal from the drop-down list that matches your Drupal site version.
4. Copy the git clone and cd commands listed there. Paste them into your terminal window. (If you are using Git Bash on Windows, you can click the icon on the upper left corner of the application window to get a menu, where you can select Paste, or you can use the shift+insert keyboard shortcut.)
5. Once the clone is complete, try these informational commands:
   $ ls -a
$ git status
   (view the status of your files in the working directory and staging area)
   $ git branch -a
   (list, create and manage working contexts. The option -a shows both existing and remote tracking branches)
   $ git log -3
   (shows commit logs. The -3 option limits to the latest 3 commits.)

Download Drupal Using Git
For higher rungs on the Drupal Ladder, you will want to have a Git repository for Drupal core. You can find the correct Git information for Drupal core in the same way as for projects (http://drupal.org/project/drupal/git-instructions). Doing the simple clone command below will download the cutting edge version of Drupal, sometimes referred to as HEAD, which is currently the Drupal 8 development version. Again, this code will be downloaded to the location you are in on the command line, so typically you will download this in the web root folder of your local web server.

git clone http://git.drupal.org/project/drupal.git

Once you have a Drupal 8 clone, you should always update it to the lastest code before you start new work. You can pull down all of the latest changes from Drupal.org, by moving into your Drupal 8 directory, and then doing a git pull command:

git pull