> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.hosting.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Configuring a Git client

> Learn how to set up a Client to work with a Git repository on your server. Just follow our easy step-by-step Git help guide!

This article describes how to set up a client on your computer to work with a Git repository stored on a hosting.com server.

<Note>
  This article assumes that you are already familiar with basic Git usage, and you have already created a Git repository on your hosting.com account. For information about how to do this, please see [this article](/docs/using-git).
</Note>

## Configuring a Git client

After you create a repository on your hosting.com account, you probably want to be able to access it and work with it remotely instead of directly on the server. To do this, you use a Git client.

Follow the appropriate procedure below for the operating system installed on your computer.

### Microsoft Windows

There are many Git clients available for computers running Microsoft Windows. This article describes how to install and configure [TortoiseGit](https://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/), a popular Windows client for managing Git projects.

To use TortoiseGit, you must download and install the client, as well as Git for Windows. To do this, follow these steps:

1. To download the TortoiseGit client, use your web browser to visit [https://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit](https://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit).

2. Under **Download & Install**, click **Download TortoiseGit** and then save the.msi file on your computer.

3. Double-click the.msi file to start the installation process. Follow the on-screen prompts.

4. After TortoiseGit is installed, you are ready to install Git for Windows. To download Git for Windows, use your web browser to visit [http://msysgit.github.io](http://msysgit.github.io).

5. Click **Download**, and then save the.exe file on your computer.

6. Double-click the.exe file to start the installation process. Follow the on-screen prompts.
   > 📘 Note
   >
   > During installation, TortoiseGit may detect PuTTY SSH sessions already configured on your system. If it does, you can choose to use TortoisePlink to integrate TortoiseGit with your existing PuTTY sessions.

7. You can now use TortoiseGit to work with your repositories. You can clone repositories, manage branches, do push and pull requests, and much more.
   > 📘 Note
   >
   > For example, to clone a repository stored on a hosting.com server, right-click on the desktop or on a folder, and then click **GitClone** . In the **URL** text box, type the following URL, replacing both occurrences of *username* with your hosting.com account username, *example.com* with your domain name, and *repository* with the path to the repository:
   >
   > **ssh://[username@example.com](mailto:username@example.com)/home/username/repository**
   >
   > Click **OK** . TortoiseGit clones the repository on your computer.
   >
   > If your server uses a non-standard port for SSH, include a colon and the port number. For example:
   >
   > **ssh://[username@example.com](mailto:username@example.com):7822/home/username/repository**

### macOS and Linux

The *git* command line client is often the quickest and easiest way to interact with a remote Git repository, although there are GUI-based clients as well. In either case, however, clients commonly use SSH to access Git.

Some hosting.com servers use custom port 7822 for SSH connections instead of the default port 22. For example, the following command demonstrates how to clone a repository stored on a server using port 7822. Replace both instances of *username* with your hosting.com account username, *example.com* with your domain name, and *repository* with the path to the repository:

```bash theme={null}
git clone ssh://username@example.com:7822/home/username/repository
```

In the previous command, we explicitly specify port number 7822. However, you can also define the SSH port number for a remote host in your *\~/.ssh/config* file as follows:

```
Host example
    Hostname example.com
    Port 7822
    User username
```

The **Host** value can be any name you want. The **Hostname** value is the remote host you want to access, the port number is 7822, and the **User** value specifies your hosting.com account username. With this configuration defined, you can run git commands for the *example.com* domain by simply using the **Host** value. You do not have to specify the port number and username each time. The following command demonstrates how to do this:

```bash theme={null}
git clone ssh://example/home/username/repository
```

<Tip>
  If you do not want to enter a password every time you connect to a repository on a hosting.com server, you can set up SSH keys. For information about how to do this, please see [this article](/docs/using-ssh-keys).
</Tip>

## Related articles

* [Using Git](/docs/using-git)