2. Essential Setup

First-time configuration

git config --global user.name  "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
git config --global core.editor "code --wait"   # VS Code as editor
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
git config --global pull.rebase false            # merge strategy on pull (change to true for rebase)

View config

git config --list --show-origin   # all settings + where they come from
git config user.name              # check a single value

Initialize or clone

git init my-project      # new repo
git clone <url>          # copy existing repo
git clone <url> folder   # clone into specific folder

.gitignore essentials

# Compiled output
*.class
*.pyc
__pycache__/
dist/
build/

# Environment & secrets
.env
*.pem
secrets.json

# Editor
.vscode/
.idea/

Generate project-specific ignore files at gitignore.io.

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