gitgit-config

Configuring Git `user.name`?


I installed Git for Windows 7 today. I don't know much about Git yet and I'm following http://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-First-Time-Git-Setup and videos from YouTube on that subject. On the videos people install Git and go to the command line and use

git config --global user.name = "My Name"

and

git config --global user.email = "email@example.com"

and it creates .gitconfig file in C:/Users/admin/.gitconfig with correct values for them.

After running the above lines of code three times this is what I got in that file:

[user]
    name = =
    email = =
    name = =

Why isn't it working? I followed the official tutorial and I see that it works for other people on YouTube but not for me.


Solution

  • You're not using the correct syntax: there shouldn't be any equal sign between user.name and "My name", or between user.email and "email@example.com". For instance, when you run

    git config --global user.name = "My Name"
    

    the command interprets the = character as the string value passed to the user.name key, and the rest of the line ("My Name") is silently ignored. That's why your .gitconfig file ends up containing

    [user]
        name = =
        email = =
    

    Everything should work if you use the correct syntax:

    enter image description here

    See also VonC's answer about relevant changes in Git 2.13.