How to install Git on Ubuntu 22.04

Git is the world's most popular distributed version control system, used by many open source and commercial projects. It lets you collaborate on projects with other developers, track code changes, revert to previous stages, create branches, and more.

Git was originally developed by Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel.

In this guide we will describe how to install and configure Git on Ubuntu 22.04. We will cover two methods: installing the package from the Ubuntu repositories and building Git from the source code. Choose the method that meets your needs.

Install Git with Apt

This is the most convenient and fastest way to install Git on Ubuntu.

Git comes pre-installed with most Ubuntu systems. Before installing Git, you can check if it is already installed on your system by typing:

git --version

If Git is not installed on your system, the output of the above command will tell you that the git command was not found. Otherwise, it will print the installed Git version.

git version 2.34.1

If you don't have Git on your instance, you can install it from the default Ubuntu repositories using apt package manager.

Start by running the following command as a user with sudo privileges to update the local package index:

sudo apt update

Once the upgrade is complete, install Git:

sudo apt install git

You can verify your installation by checking your Git version:

git --version

As of this writing, the current version of Git available in the Ubuntu 22.04 repositories is 2.34.1:

git version 2.34.1

That's it, you have successfully installed Git on your Ubuntu and can start configuring it.

When a new version of Git is released, you can upgrade packages using the standard sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade procedure.

Install Git from source

The main advantage of installing Git from source is that you can compile any version of Git you want and customize the build options. However, you cannot maintain your Git installation via the apt package manager.

Start by installing the dependencies needed to build Git on your Ubuntu system:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install libcurl4-gnutls-dev libexpat1-dev cmake gettext libz-dev libssl-dev gcc wget

Next, open your browser and visit the Git download page. Here you can find the latest version of Git.

As of this writing, the latest stable version of Git is “2.43.0”:

If you want to install another version of Git, click here, where you can find a list of tarballs and download the version you need.

Download the latest version and extract the Git source to the /usr/src directory, which is the common location to place source files:

wget -c https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-2.43.0.tar.gz -O - | sudo tar -xz -C /usr/src

Once the download is complete, go to the source directory and run the following commands to compile and install Git:

cd /usr/src/git-*

sudo make prefix=/usr/local all

sudo make prefix=/usr/local install

It may take some time to compile, depending on your system.

For the changes to take effect on the current shell, you can log out and log in or run the following source command:

source /etc/environment

Verify the installation by typing:

git --version

git version 2.43.0

Next, if you want to upgrade to a newer version of Git, use the same process.

Configure Git

After installing Git on your system, you'll want to set up your Git username and email address. Git associates your identity with every commit you make.

To set the global commit name and email address, run the following commands:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"

git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

Test your configuration changes by typing:

git config --list

The output should look like this:

user.name=Your Name
 [email protected]

Configuration settings are stored in the ~/.gitconfig file:

[user]
 name = Your Name
 email = [email protected]

If you want to make additional changes to your Git configuration, you can use the git config command (recommended) or manually edit the ~/.gitconfig file.

Conclusion

Installing Git on Ubuntu is a matter of running a single apt command. If you want to use the latest version of Git, you can compile it from source.

To learn more about Git, visit the Pro Git book website.