# Git Environment problem

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/git-environment-problem/157686>\
**Category:** Deployment\
**Created:** [January 14, 2009, 1:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/git-environment-problem/157686 "2009-01-14T13:05:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![temesta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@temesta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/temesta)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2009, 1:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/git-environment-problem/157686/1 "2009-01-14T13:05:23Z")

</div>

Hi,

I’m trying to push my rails app to the remote depository. Unfortunately  
i get this error:

\*\*\* Environment problem:  
\*\*\* Your name cannot be determined from your system services (gecos).  
\*\*\* You would need to set GIT\_AUTHOR\_NAME and GIT\_COMMITTER\_NAME  
\*\*\* environment variables; otherwise you won’t be able to perform  
\*\*\* certain operations because of “empty ident” errors.  
\*\*\* Alternatively, you can use user.name configuration variable.

I found some answers on google, but nothing seems to work. So I tried  
all these things:

1. change bash\_profile (I have however newest version client & remote)

You’re probably using a slightly older version of git that needs you to  
export some variables:  
$ export GIT\_AUTHOR\_NAME=”whatever”  
$ export GIT\_COMMITER\_NAME=”whatever”

1. change git config

git config --global user.name Joe Random Hacker  
git config --global user.email removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

1. cheched user info

Make sure your Full Name is not empty in chsh =\> seems to be ok

This absolutely makes no sense to me. I’m on osx. Does anyone have a  
clue why I keep getting this error?

tnx