How to Install git on Ubuntu

November 17, 2023

In this article I will show you how to install GIT on Ubuntu server or computer.

There is a chance that you already have GIT pre-installed. So before trying to install Git on Ubuntu ensure that it is not installed already. Open terminal and type:

$ git --version
git version 2.34.1

If output shows version of git then you are lucky and git is already installed on your Ubuntu machine. You can begin using git!

Installing git via APT

If command “git –version” shows error “Command ‘git’ not found” then you need to install git. Use APT package manager to perform the installation.

$ sudo apt install git

The following NEW packages will be installed: git
After this operation, 18,9 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ua.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 git amd64 1:2.34.1-1ubuntu1.10 [3 166 kB]
Fetched 3 166 kB in 1s (4 297 kB/s) 
Selecting previously unselected package git.
(Reading database ... 402237 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../git_1%3a2.34.1-1ubuntu1.10_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking git (1:2.34.1-1ubuntu1.10) ...
Setting up git (1:2.34.1-1ubuntu1.10) ...

Lets check that git package is installed correctly.

$ git --version
git version 2.34.1

That’s it. You can start using git. Did you expect more steps?

Suggested packages – which do you need?

There are extra packages suggested for install: git-daemon-run, git-daemon-sysvinit git-doc git-email git-gui gitk gitweb git-cvs git-mediawiki git-svn. What do they provide?

What is git-daemon-run

A quick Google search on git-daemon-run unveils that it is possible to demonize git in order to run own Git server. If you want to make your local Git repositories accessible over network for collaboration then git-daemon might be useful for you.

You do not need a Git daemon if you don’t plan to run own Git server. And if you plan to run own Git server – there are better options than a git-daemon, such as Gitolite, gitea or similar.

What is git-doc

Lets query the repository for info about the package:

$ sudo apt show git-doc
Package: git-doc
Version: 1:2.34.1-1ubuntu1.10
Priority: optional
... omitting lines with info about developers ...
 
This package provides the documentation

As you can see git-doc package provides documentation. You don’t need to install it since all the git documentation you might need is available online.

What is git-email package?

Lets run the same “apt show” trick with the git-email package.

$ sudo apt show git-email
Package: git-email
Version: 1:2.34.1-1ubuntu1.10
Priority: optional
This package provides the git-send-email program for sending series of
patch emails.

It might be useful in some cases to send patches as emails. So if you are actively developing and using GIT this package might come in handy.

You don’t need extra packages to use GIT

Once git is installed go ahead and start using it. There is no better way to learn git than by practice. Create an empty repository or clone existing repository from Github and start coding!

Command below will initiate a Git repository in current directory.

$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/gitproject/.git/

And to clone an existing repository from Github use “git clone REPO_URL” command. For example:

$ git clone https://github.com/EugeneWHZ/canvaslms-ansible-installation.git
Cloning into 'canvaslms-ansible-installation'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 66, done.
remote: Total 66 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 66
Receiving objects: 100% (66/66), 13.81 KiB | 589.00 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (10/10), done.