Whenever I start using a new machine for development these are the first options I setup.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

First things first – Your name

git config --global user.name "Andrea Salvadore"
git config --global user.email "me@here.com"

Better log messages

git config --global alias.lg "log --color --graph 
 --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset 
 -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) 
 %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' 
 --abbrev-commit"

This command will generate nicely coloured and formatted git logs. See more details in here

Some common aliases

git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.ck=checkout

merge tool

I use diffmerge or meld. The following configuration is for diffmerge

git config --global merge.tool diffmerge
git config --global mergetool.diffmerge.trustexitcode true
git config --global mergetool.keepbackup false
git config --global mergetool.diffmerge.cmd "/usr/bin/diffmerge --merge --result=\"$MERGED\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$BASE\" \"$REMOTE\""

diff tool

git config --global diff.tool diffmerge
git config --global difftool.diffmerge.cmd diffmerge '$LOCAL' '$REMOTE'

push current folder

git config --global push.default current

This will allow you to type

git push origin

instead of

git push origin <current_branch_name>

Tell git to ignore file permission changes

git config --global core.filemode false