We use Git as version control system. Installation instructions can be found on the Git website.

After installing Git, you should configure your name and email address. This is required to commit changes to the repository.

git config --global user.name "John Doe"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

Repositories should optimally be cloned using SSH. This requires a few additional steps.

SSH Keys#

We use SSH keys to authenticate with GitLab. If you don't have an SSH key yet, you can generate one with the following command:

ssh-keygen

This will generate a public and private key in the C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\.ssh\ directory. The public key is called id_rsa.pub. If you open this file using a text editor, you will see a long string of characters. This is your public key.

You can now add the public key to your GitLab account. Go to your GitLab profile settings, paste the public key into the text field and click on the "Add key"

Git Client#

There are many different Git clients available. We recommend using the TortoiseGit client for Windows. It integrates nicely with Windows Explorer. Some additional configuration is required to use SSH keys with TortoiseGit. If you right-click on any folder in Windows Explorer, you will see a new menu item called "TortoiseGit". Click on it and select "Settings". In the "Network" tab, you can configure the SSH client. Select "Browse" and select the C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\ssh.exe file. You should then be able to clone repositories using SSH.

Next to this, the built-in Git client of Visual Studio Code is also a good alternative, which should work out of the box.