Install Git before Boxen, or Boxen before Git?

Question

So, I've just ponied up for a Mac, and I'm looking to use Boxen to get a working environment setup. Thing is, the setup instructions are a little confusing. The intro on this page:

https://github.com/boxen/our-boxen#getting-started

uses git

sudo mkdir -p /opt/boxen
sudo chown ${USER}:admin /opt/boxen
git clone <location of my new git repository> /opt/boxen/repo
cd /opt/boxen/repo
script/boxen

but it then goes on to state:

This template project provides the following by default:

Homebrew
Git
Hub

I get the impression that you ideally want to have a clean system to avoid conflicts when using Boxen, so before I get git from homebrew/app store, I wanted to see how others have gone about setting up Boxen so I can save myself some headaches

Answer 1

I don't think you need to install git first. I've installed Boxen, although I haven't yet tried a clean bootstrap on a new machine. Here's my understanding:

1) The X-Code Command-Line tools are a prerequisite for installing Boxen - X-Code installs a version of git as /usr/bin/git, so there is no need to explicitly install another git to bootstrap Boxen. On my machine - Mountain Lion/10.8.3:

$ /usr/bin/git --version
git version 1.7.12.4 (Apple Git-37)

2) Once you install Boxen, Boxen will then install the Homebrew release of git at /opt/boxen/homebrew/bin/git, which is likely a newer version of the X-Code Command-Line git:

$ /opt/boxen/homebrew/bin/git --version
git version 1.8.0

3) Finally, by default, Boxen will install hub, which will alias git to hub (hub is a GitHub-enhancing wrapper around git):

$ type -a git
git is aliased to `hub'
git is /opt/boxen/homebrew/bin/git
git is /usr/bin/git

$ git --version
git version 1.8.0
hub version 1.10.5

Answer 2

I let Xcode command line tools do it for me, before I setup a fresh Boxen:

$ xcode-select --install

After you setup your Boxen, you'll be up to the appropriate Git version.