This guide shows you how to compile and install git from source on OS X. Building directly from source can be extremely useful if package managers are slow to apply security patches.
This specific procedures avoids OpenSSL errors, such as
openssl/ssl.h' file not found #include <openssl/ssl.h>
Step 1 - Download source
Visit the git source tarballs list. Scroll down and find the git version you are interested in installing. In my case, I wanted to install git version 2.8.1.
In the terminal, execute the following to download the git source. Replace the version numbers in the URL with the desired version numbers.
$ curl "https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-2.8.1.tar.gz" -o git.tar.gz
Extract the tar that was just downloaded.
$ tar -xf git.tar.gz
cd to the extracted directory (your directory may be different).
$ cd git-2.8.1/
Step 2 - Install OpenSSL Headers
git requires OpenSSL headers to build from source. We will use Homebrew to install the headers.
Follow the "Install Homebrew" instructions.
After the installation has completed, install openssl through brew.
$ brew install openssl
Verify openssl installed successfully.
$ which openssl # You should see the following output # /usr/local/bin/openssl
Now link the openssl header files.
$ brew link openssl --force
Step 3 - Install Autoconf
We will use Homebrow to install Autoconf to aid in the compilation process.
$ brew install autoconf
Verify autoconf installed successfully.
$ which autoconf # You should see the following output # /usr/local/bin/autoconf
Step 4 - Build git from source
First, create the configuration file updated with our openssl
$ make configure
Compile and build.
$ ./configure && make
While the source code is compiling, the terminal output will resemble something like:
configure: creating ./config.status config.status: creating config.mak.autogen config.status: executing config.mak.autogen commands CC blob.o CC branch.o CC bulk-checkin.o CC bundle.o CC cache-tree.o CC color.o CC column.o CC combine-diff.o CC commit.o CC compat/obstack.o CC compat/terminal.o CC config.o CC connect.o
Install.
$ sudo make install
Step 5 - Verify installation
After the command has executed, verify installation was successful.
$ git --version # The output should be the version number of the git source downloaded. # git version 2.8.1