First-time configuration

1. Identity. Use the name colleagues know you by, and the email address your GitLab or GitHub account uses, so the platform can link commits to your profile:

$ git config --global user.name "Ana Lopez"
$ git config --global user.email "ana@northwind-trails.example"

2. Default branch name for new repositories:

$ git config --global init.defaultBranch main

3. Editor for commit messages when you forget -m (and for a few other operations). For VS Code:

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

--wait makes Git wait until you close the editor tab. Alternatives: "nano" (simple terminal editor), "notepad++ -multiInst -notabbar -nosession -noPlugin" on Windows, or leave the default (Vim; press Esc then type :wq to save and exit).

4. Pull behaviour. Tell Git to merge when pulling (the simplest to understand; rebase comes in Section 6):

$ git config --global pull.rebase false

5. First push of a new branch without typing -u origin branch-name every time (Git 2.37 or newer):

$ git config --global push.autoSetupRemote true

6. Line endings. Windows uses two characters to end a line, macOS and Linux one; without this setting, every file looks fully changed to colleagues on the other system. On Windows: git config --global core.autocrlf true. On macOS and Linux: git config --global core.autocrlf input. (The Windows installer sets this if you chose "Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style".)

Read everything back:

$ git config --global --list

user.name=Ana Lopez
user.email=ana@northwind-trails.example
init.defaultbranch=main
core.editor=code --wait
pull.rebase=false
push.autosetupremote=true

And now the commit works:

$ git commit -m "test"

[main (root-commit) 10053a3] test
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

VS Code has no settings page for Git identity; it uses the same global configuration as the terminal. Set it in VS Code's integrated terminal (Ctrl+`) with the commands from the Terminal tab. Two VS Code settings are worth knowing (File → Preferences → Settings, search "git"):

• Git: Enable Smart Commit — commit all changes when nothing is staged. Leave it off while learning: staging deliberately is the point.
• Git: Autofetch — fetch from the remote in the background so the status bar shows when you are behind. Turn it on.

If a commit from VS Code fails with "Please tell me who you are", the identity is missing: run the two git config --global commands.

IntelliJ reads the same global configuration. Set identity from its terminal (Alt+F12 / ⌥F12) with the Terminal tab's commands. The commit dialog also has an Author field that overrides the identity for one commit; leave it empty normally. Under Settings → Version Control → Git you can set the path to Git (lesson 3.6) and whether to use the credential helper; keep Use credential helper ticked.

Nothing to configure in GitLab for identity, but the email must match: GitLab links a commit to your profile only if the commit's email is one of the verified emails in User settings → Emails. Add your work email there if it differs from your sign-up email. Credentials for pushing (token or SSH key) come in Section 8.

Same rule: commits are attributed to your account only when the email matches one in Settings → Emails. GitHub also offers a private …@users.noreply.github.com address if you do not want your real email in public commits; if you enable "Keep my email addresses private", use that address in user.email.