first-contributions/docs/additional-material/git_workflow_scenarios/installing-git-arch.md

Installing Git on Arch Linux

To install Git on Arch Linux, you can use the package manager pacman. First, open a terminal and update the system with the following command:

$ sudo pacman -Syu

Next, install Git by running:

$ sudo pacman -S git

To confirm that Git has been installed correctly, run the following command:

$ git --version

You should see output similar to:

Output
$ git version 2.34.1

Set up Git

Configuration can be achieved by using the git config command. Specifically, you need to provide your name and email address because Git embeds this information into each commit you do. You can add this information by typing:

Now that we are done with installing Git, let us configure it for first time use using "git config" command. We need to make sure your username and email address are set correctly. To set them, use the command:

$ git config --global user.name "Your Name"
$ git config --global user.email "youremail@domain.com"

You can display all the configuration items that have been set by entering the following command in your terminal:

$ git config --list

If all config field have been set up to your need the output should look something like

user.name=Your Name
user.email=youremail@domain.com

Persist Git Credentials

By default, Git will prompt you to re-enter your username and password every time you interact with a remote repository. You can configure Git to cache or store your credentials to avoid this. Below are two common methods:

1. Credential Caching

Git can temporarily store your credentials in memory, so you don't need to re-enter them frequently. Run the following command to enable credential caching:

$ git config --global credential.helper cache

By default, credentials will be cached for 15 minutes. To adjust the timeout period (e.g., 1 hour), use:

$ git config --global credential.helper 'cache --timeout=3600'

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2. Credential Storing

If you prefer to store your credentials permanently in plain text (less secure but convenient), you can use the following command:

$ git config --global credential.helper store

When using this method, your credentials will be saved in plain text in ~/.git-credentials. Be cautious with this approach, especially on shared or public machines.