## The Challenge:

Install Git on your computer and configure your name and email.

## Git

Git is open source software (free for anyone to use) written by Linus Torvalds who also wrote the Linux operating system.

It is a program for keeping track of changes over time, known in programming as version control.

## Step: Install Git

- Windows: It's recommended to download GitHub Desktop, which includes Git and has an easier install: desktop.github.com. Use the Git Shell for your terminal.
- Mac: You can also download GitHub Desktop, which includes Git, desktop.github.com (from Preferences, select the command line tools install), or
  - download Git by itself at: git-scm.com/downloads and follow the installation instructions.

Git isn't like other programs on your computer. You'll likely not see an icon on your desktop, but it will always be available to you and you'll be able to access it at anytime from your terminal (which you're using in Git-it!) or Git desktop applications (like GitHub Desktop).

## Step: Configure Git

Once it is installed, open terminal (aka Bash, aka Shell, aka Prompt). You can verify that it's really there by typing:

`$ git --version`

This will return the version of Git that you're running and look something like this:

`git version 1.9.1`

(Any version `1.7.10` or higher is fine.)

Next, configure Git so it knows who to associate your changes to:

Set your name:

`$ git config --global user.name "<Your Name>"`

Now set your email:

`$ git config --global user.email "<youremail@example.com>"`

{{{verify_button}}}

## Tips

Dollar signs `$` are often used in programming documentation to signify that the line is command line code (see the code snippets above). You don't actually type the `$` in though, only type what comes after. For instance, to run the verify command above, you're actually going to type `git-it verify` into terminal.