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Development Tools Introduction to Git First Commits First Commits

Posted by Kit Howlett
Kit Howlett
6,774 Points

When I tried to add my email address and name to Git the console returned a > symbol.

I was following this tutorial within the console after launching the Workspace. I followed all the steps within the tutorial but ran into an issue when I ran git config --global user.email "myemailaddress@emailaddress.com"

(I did of course replace with my own email).

When I hit enter the console no longer had the prompt treehouse:~/workspace$ Instead it had a greater than sign > and I couldn't get it to go away. In the end I tried ctrl + c which seemed to work but I then had to navigate back to the original directory.

How do I fix this in the future and what happened?

Thank you

1 Answer

Adam N
Adam N
70,280 Points

That happens when you forget a closing quotation mark. The terminal thinks you want to add more to what you've written. You probably entered something like: 

git config --global user.email "myemailaddress@emailaddress.com

Let me know if this helps!

Kit Howlett
Kit Howlett
6,774 Points

Ah thank you! How would I exit that in the future?

Adam N
Adam N
70,280 Points

When you see the > sign you can put in the missing closing quotation mark (then press enter) and the command will go through as it should! Like this:

git config --global user.email "myemailaddress@emailaddress.com
> "

I think the > sign can happen at other times as well. Just remember it means that there's something on the line you input that is considered not complete.

Christina Dixon
Christina Dixon
4,232 Points

I ran into this same issue, thank you was able to fix and move forward.