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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
70,218 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
70,218 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.