Prerequisite

Install git. Have a Github account.

Set Name and Email

Give Git your name and email.

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "Your Email"

This email will be public on your git commits, so you may want to use your Github noreply email, found in the settings.

Recently, Github changed the default branch name to main, but git’s default is still master. Use this command to switch it:

git config --global init.defaultBranch main

This will print you the username and email that you typed:

git config --get user.name
git config --get user.email

Create an ssh key if it doesn’t exist.

[[ -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ]] || ssh-keygen -C $(git config --get user.email)

Copy your public key to the Linux Clipboard.

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | xclip -sel c

Paste this code in Github Settings > import SSH & GPG keys.

Verify your SSH key.

ssh -T git@github.com