Who you are

Every commit records who made it: a name and an email. git log shows them on each commit's Author: line, newest commit first:

commit 54b3bc26b5600961698dece5a15051ee2356296a (HEAD -> main)
Author: Sam Lee <sam@example.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 1 09:14:00 2024 +0000

    Add opening hours

commit a4b8d971a4104bc200dc7415344326f408c54d03
Author: You <you@example.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 1 09:10:00 2024 +0000

    Style the heading

git takes the name and email from its settings, which you read and change with git config.

Setting your name and email: git config --global

git config --global user.name "Sam Lee"
git config --global user.email "sam@example.com"

--global sets them for every repository on this computer, so you only do it once. Put the name in quotes when it has a space in it, and use the email you want your commits to show.

Until you set them, your commits in this Terminal carry the name You and the email you@example.com. On a new computer, git may instead refuse to commit and ask who you are.

On a real computer, --global settings go in a file in your home folder, .gitconfig. This Terminal keeps them for you out of sight, so ls -a won't show that file.

Checking what's set

git config user.name prints the name your next commit will carry, and git config user.email the email. Add --global to see what's set for every repository.

git log shows who made the commits so far. That isn't always who you are now: a commit keeps the name and email it was made with, even after you change your settings.

One repository, another identity

Leave out --global, and the setting is for the repository you're in only:

git config user.email "sam@work.example"

In that repository it wins over your global setting, so your commits there carry your work email. Every other repository still uses the global one. You need to be inside a repository to do this: elsewhere, git stops with fatal: not in a git directory.

Command	What it does
git config --global user.name "<name>"	Sets your name for every repository on this computer.
git config --global user.email "<email>"	Sets your email for every repository on this computer.
git config user.email "<email>"	Sets your email for this repository only. Here, it wins over the global one.
git config user.name	Prints the name your next commit here will carry.
git config --global user.name	Prints the name set for every repository.