Installing git

git is the industry standard tool for source code repositories and GitHub is the most used implementation of git. The University of Illinois has an enterprise license to github.com, giving us access to all the fancy features of enterprise GitHub!

You will be using git to receive code from us and to submit your code for us to grade! Instructions to install git are slightly different based on your computer so the first step is to find your section below!

Windows

We'll first check if you have it installed, and only install it if you have not installed it:

Step 1: Check if You Have git Installed

First, check if you have git already installed.

  • Open Your Terminal, following our guide "Your System's Terminal"
  • Inside of your terminal, type the following and press enter: git --version
  • Read the output displayed after running the command:
    • ❗ If your output is similar to 'git' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file then you will need to install git. (See Step #2 below.)
    • ✔️ If your output starts with git version ..., then you're all set! :)

Step 2: Installing git on Windows

git is free and open-source software. Download it from https://git-scm.com/download/win and install it.

Once you've installed it, close and re-open your command prompt and verify it installed by repeating Step #1.

macOS

We'll first check if you have it installed, and MacOS will help you install developer tools if you don't have it already installed:

Installing git on macOS

Apple will automatically prompt you to install git if you do not have it the first time you run it, so let's run it!

  • Open Your Terminal, following our guide "Your System's Terminal"
  • Inside of your terminal, type the following and press enter: git --version
    • ❗If it looks like nothing happened, Apple will ask prompt you to install developer tools and macOS will do the rest. (Look for a macOS popup asking for you install developer tools, it sometimes pops up behind other windows.)
    • (Installing developer tools may take 10+ minutes, expect this to take some time.)
    • Once it finishes installing, run the git --version command again to verify it installed.
  • ✔️ If your output starts with git version ..., then you're all set! :)