Git installation Normally you can just do "make" followed by "make install", and that will install the git programs in your own ~/bin/ directory. If you want to do a global install, you can do $ make prefix=/usr all doc info ;# as yourself # make prefix=/usr install install-doc install-html install-info ;# as root (or prefix=/usr/local, of course). Just like any program suite that uses $prefix, the built results have some paths encoded, which are derived from $prefix, so "make all; make prefix=/usr install" would not work. The beginning of the Makefile documents many variables that affect the way git is built. You can override them either from the command line, or in a config.mak file. Alternatively you can use autoconf generated ./configure script to set up install paths (via config.mak.autogen), so you can write instead $ make configure ;# as yourself $ ./configure --prefix=/usr ;# as yourself $ make all doc ;# as yourself # make install install-doc install-html;# as root Issues of note: - Ancient versions of GNU Interactive Tools (pre-4.9.2) installed a program "git", whose name conflicts with this program. But with version 4.9.2, after long hiatus without active maintenance (since around 1997), it changed its name to gnuit and the name conflict is no longer a problem. NOTE: When compiled with backward compatibility option, the GNU Interactive Tools package still can install "git", but you can build it with --disable-transition option to avoid this. - You can use git after building but without installing if you wanted to. Various git commands need to find other git commands and scripts to do their work, so you would need to arrange a few environment variables to tell them that their friends will be found in your built source area instead of at their standard installation area. Something like this works for me: GIT_EXEC_PATH=`pwd` PATH=`pwd`:$PATH GITPERLLIB=`pwd`/perl/blib/lib export GIT_EXEC_PATH PATH GITPERLLIB - Git is reasonably self-sufficient, but does depend on a few external programs and libraries. Git can be used without most of them by adding the approriate "NO_=YesPlease" to the make command line or config.mak file. - "zlib", the compression library. Git won't build without it. - "ssh" is used to push and pull over the net. - A POSIX-compliant shell is required to run many scripts needed for everyday use (e.g. "bisect", "pull"). - "Perl" is needed to use some of the features (e.g. preparing a partial commit using "git add -i/-p", interacting with svn repositories with "git svn"). If you can live without these, use NO_PERL. - "openssl" library is used by git-imap-send to use IMAP over SSL. If you don't need it, use NO_OPENSSL. By default, git uses OpenSSL for SHA1 but it will use it's own library (inspired by Mozilla's) with either NO_OPENSSL or BLK_SHA1. Also included is a version optimized for PowerPC (PPC_SHA1). - "libcurl" library is used by git-http-fetch and git-fetch. You might also want the "curl" executable for debugging purposes. If you do not use http:// or https:// repositories, you do not have to have them (use NO_CURL). - "expat" library; git-http-push uses it for remote lock management over DAV. Similar to "curl" above, this is optional (with NO_EXPAT). - "wish", the Tcl/Tk windowing shell is used in gitk to show the history graphically, and in git-gui. If you don't want gitk or git-gui, you can use NO_TCLTK. - Some platform specific issues are dealt with Makefile rules, but depending on your specific installation, you may not have all the libraries/tools needed, or you may have necessary libraries at unusual locations. Please look at the top of the Makefile to see what can be adjusted for your needs. You can place local settings in config.mak and the Makefile will include them. Note that config.mak is not distributed; the name is reserved for local settings. - To build and install documentation suite, you need to have the asciidoc/xmlto toolchain. Because not many people are inclined to install the tools, the default build target ("make all") does _not_ build them. "make doc" builds documentation in man and html formats; there are also "make man", "make html" and "make info". Note that "make html" requires asciidoc, but not xmlto. "make man" (and thus make doc) requires both. "make install-doc" installs documentation in man format only; there are also "make install-man", "make install-html" and "make install-info". Building and installing the info file additionally requires makeinfo and docbook2X. Version 0.8.3 is known to work. Building and installing the pdf file additionally requires dblatex. Version 0.2.7 with asciidoc >= 8.2.7 is known to work. The documentation is written for AsciiDoc 7, but "make ASCIIDOC8=YesPlease doc" will let you format with AsciiDoc 8. Alternatively, pre-formatted documentation is available in "html" and "man" branches of the git repository itself. For example, you could: $ mkdir manual && cd manual $ git init $ git fetch-pack git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git man html | while read a b do echo $a >.git/$b done $ cp .git/refs/heads/man .git/refs/heads/master $ git checkout to checkout the pre-built man pages. Also in this repository: $ git checkout html would instead give you a copy of what you see at: http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/ There are also "make quick-install-doc", "make quick-install-man" and "make quick-install-html" which install preformatted man pages and html documentation. This does not require asciidoc/xmlto, but it only works from within a cloned checkout of git.git with these two extra branches, and will not work for the maintainer for obvious chicken-and-egg reasons. It has been reported that docbook-xsl version 1.72 and 1.73 are buggy; 1.72 misformats manual pages for callouts, and 1.73 needs the patch in contrib/patches/docbook-xsl-manpages-charmap.patch