Installing and configuring Git

Git helps you track changes to code, notebooks, papers, and data-processing scripts. It is an essential part of an organized astrophysics workflow.

1. Install Git

Check whether Git is already installed:

git --version

If it is not installed, pick one of these:

macOS

brew install git

Linux

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git

Conda

conda install -c conda-forge git

On Windows, install Git inside WSL 2 using the Linux commands.

2. Set your identity

git config --global user.name "YOUR_FIRSTNAME YOUR_LASTNAME"
git config --global user.email "YOUR_EMAIL_ADDRESS"
git config --global init.defaultBranch main

3. Set VS Code as the Git editor

git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

4. Create a GitHub account and add an SSH key

Create a free account at GitHub.

For command-line access, use SSH keys instead of a password. On your machine, generate an SSH key pair:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

Press Enter to accept the default file location, and choose a secure passphrase if prompted.

Start the SSH agent and add the key:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Copy the public key to your clipboard:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Then in GitHub, open Settings → SSH and GPG keys → New SSH key, paste the key, and save it.

Finally, test the connection:

ssh -T git@github.com

If you are on Windows, run these steps in Git Bash or inside WSL 2 so the SSH agent and key files behave correctly.

Useful commands

git clone <repository-url>
git status
git add .
git commit -m "Add analysis notebook"
git push