Objective
The objective is to install the distributed version control system git on Ubuntu 18.04 Linux. First, we will be installing git on Ubuntu from a standard Ubuntu repository and later we will perform git installation from the source code.
Operating System and Software Versions
- Operating System: – Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver
Requirements
Privileged access to your Ubuntu System as root or via the sudo
command is required.
Conventions
- # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of the
sudo
command - $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user
Other Versions of this Tutorial
Instructions
Install Git on Ubuntu from repository
First we will be installing git on Ubuntu from its standard repository. To do so simply execute the command:
ubuntu:~$ sudo apt -y install git
Once ready you can check for a correct git installation by retrieving git’s version:
$ git --version git version 2.15.1
You have now installed git on your Ubuntu system.
Install Git on Ubuntu from Source Code
Installation of git from a standard Ubuntu repository does not yield the latest git version. In some rare cases you may wish to install the latest git version. To do so we need to install Git from the source code.
Let’s start by installation of all prerequisites. Enter the command:
ubuntu:~$ sudo apt -y install make libssl-dev libghc-zlib-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libexpat1-dev gettext unzip
Next, use your browser and head over to the official git repository:

Select master
branch. Next, click on Tags
and select your desired Git version you wish to install. Due to the possible unstable nature, it is a good idea to avoid release candidate (rc) versions if possible.
From here click on Clone or Download
button. Next, right click on Download ZIP
and select Copy link address
.
Back to your terminal, use wget
command to download Git zip package using the previously retrieved git link download address. Example:
ubuntu:~$ wget https://github.com/git/git/archive/v2.16.2.zip
Unzip the download git package. Your git version number may be different:
ubuntu:~$ unzip v2.16.2.zip
At this stage we are ready to compile and install git. The following sets of commands will compile the previously downloaded git source code and install git binaries on your Ubuntu 18.04 linux system. Change the version number where appropriate:
ubuntu:~$ cd git-2.16.2 ubuntu:~$ make prefix=/usr/local all ubuntu:~$ sudo make prefix=/usr/local install
If all went well you should now have git installed on your Ubuntu 18.04 system. To confirmg run:
ubuntu:~$ git --version git version 2.16.2
Post-Install git Configuration
You can now use git to clone any repository. However if you wish to make git commits you first need to set your personal information which will be submitted to main branch with each your commit. Enter the following linux commands to set your Name and email address:
ubuntu:~$ git config --global user.name "Your Name Here" ubuntu:~$ git config --global user.email "youremail@address.here"
You can always change this settings by editing the main ~/.gitconfig
git configuration file located withhin your home directory:
[user]
name = Your Name Here
email = youremail@address.here