How to install Git on Ubuntu

Git is by far the most widely used distributed version control system while being free and open source. git client is not installed by default in the desktop variants of Ubuntu though despite the popularity.

git is available in Ubuntu's default apt repository, so it could easily be installed from the terminal using apt.

1. Open terminal from the application launcher or via the <ctrl> + <alt> + <t> keyboard shortcut.
2. Update apt's package list from the repository.

   $ sudo apt update
   [sudo] password for user:
   Get:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco-security InRelease [97.5 kB]
   Hit:2 http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco InRelease
   Get:3 http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco-updates InRelease [97.5 kB]
   Get:4 http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu disco-backports InRelease [88.8 kB]
   Fetched 284 kB in 1s (198 kB/s)
   Reading package lists... Done
   Building dependency tree
   Reading state information... Done
   All packages are up to date.

3. Install git package via apt.

   $ sudo apt install --assume-yes git
   [sudo] password for user:
   Reading package lists... Done
   Building dependency tree
   Reading state information... Done
   The following additional packages will be installed:
     git-man liberror-perl
   Suggested packages:
     git-daemon-run | git-daemon-sysvinit git-doc git-el git-email git-gui gitk gitweb git-cvs git-mediawiki git-svn
   The following NEW packages will be installed:
     git git-man liberror-perl
   0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
   ##### snipped

4. Test by running git from the command line.

   $ git
   usage: git [--version] [--help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
              [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
              [-p | --paginate | -P | --no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
              [--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
              <command> [<args>]
   
   These are common Git commands used in various situations:
   
   start a working area (see also: git help tutorial)
      clone      Clone a repository into a new directory
      init       Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one
   ------ snipped ------

5. Install GUI-based git client (optional).

   • Sublime Merge
   • ungit
   • GitKraken
   • git cola