When working with CentOS 6, you might encounter a frustrating situation where the default yum repositories only offer Git 1.7.1, while the official Git website lists version 1.8+ as current. This isn't because your system is misconfigured - CentOS deliberately maintains older, stable versions in its default repos.

Red Hat-based distributions like CentOS prioritize stability over cutting-edge versions. The package maintainers thoroughly test specific versions before including them in official repositories. Here's what you're seeing:

# yum info git
Installed Packages
Name        : git
Arch        : x86_64
Version     : 1.7.1
Release     : 2.el6_0.1

The easiest way to get newer Git versions is by adding the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repository:

# For CentOS 6
sudo rpm -Uvh http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

# Then install Git
sudo yum install git

For even newer versions, consider the IUS repo which specializes in newer versions of common tools:

sudo rpm -Uvh https://centos6.iuscommunity.org/ius-release.rpm
sudo yum install git2u

When you absolutely need the latest version, compiling from source gives you complete control:

# Install dependencies
sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
sudo yum install curl-devel expat-devel gettext-devel openssl-devel zlib-devel

# Download and compile
wget https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-2.30.0.tar.gz
tar -zxf git-2.30.0.tar.gz
cd git-2.30.0
make prefix=/usr/local all
sudo make prefix=/usr/local install

After any installation method, verify your Git version:

git --version
# Should show version 1.8+ depending on method used

For development environments where you need to test against different Git versions, consider using git-wrapper:

sudo yum install git-all
git --version=2.30.0
git --version=1.8.5

Remember that compiling from source means you'll need to manually update Git in the future, while using repositories allows for easier updates through yum.

---

When working with CentOS 6, you might encounter package version limitations due to the conservative nature of enterprise Linux distributions. While git-scm.com advertises version 1.8+ for modern systems, running:

yum install git

Returns:

Package git-1.7.1-2.el6_0.1.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Nothing to do

This discrepancy occurs because Red Hat/CentOS backports security fixes to older versions rather than providing the newest upstream releases.

Here are three reliable ways to obtain newer Git versions on CentOS 6:

1. Using IUS Community Repository

First import the IUS repository which provides newer packages:

sudo yum install https://centos6.iuscommunity.org/ius-release.rpm
sudo rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/IUS-COMMUNITY-GPG-KEY
sudo yum install git2u

This will install Git 2.x while maintaining system stability.

2. Building from Source

For maximum version control (though more complex):

sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
sudo yum install gettext-devel openssl-devel perl-CPAN perl-devel zlib-devel
wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-2.30.0.tar.gz
tar -zxf git-2.30.0.tar.gz
cd git-2.30.0
make configure
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make all
sudo make install

3. Using Software Collections (SCL)

Red Hat's SCL provides newer versions while maintaining system stability:

sudo yum install centos-release-scl
sudo yum install rh-git29
scl enable rh-git29 bash

After installation, always verify:

git --version

For source builds or SCL installations, you may need to adjust your PATH if the binary isn't found.

Enterprise distributions prioritize stability over new features. The git-1.7.1 package in CentOS 6 receives backported security patches, making it "latest" from the distribution's perspective. This differs from upstream's definition of "latest."