Why do my GitHub commit to always show as an unknown author?

Question

I just set up a GitHub account and clicked on the source repository. If I look at the account level, then in the section "Social Activities" it will be correct and says chriskessel pushed ....

If I click on the repository, it says: unknown authored 4 minutes ago

I cannot figure out how to configure IntelliJ (or any other main Git file) to get my name in the actual commit string. git config user.name on the project command line knows who I am right.

I am using IntelliJ 11, Git 1.7.9 and Windows 7.

I am rather puzzled, especially since the GitHub account knows who did something, but not the GitHub repository and all my commits and even creating the repository were through IntelliJ. Any ideas what to look for?

Answer 1

Double check user.email settings.
Both user.name and user.email must be set in order for GitHub to select the correct author.

For an example, see the Git Unknown question.
See also the blog post " GitHub: Copying code to your public repository without the name of an unknown author in committ ".

From the GitHub man page :

Git keeps track of who makes each commit by checking the username and email address.
In addition, we use this information to link your obligations with your GitHub account.
To install them, enter the code below, replacing the name and email address with your own. The name should be your actual name, not your GitHub username.

 $ git config --global user.name "Firstname Lastname" $ git config --global user.email "[e-mail]"