[PATCH v2 1/2] user-manual: add global config section

[Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>]

Comments from Michael J Gruber, Jonathan Nieder and Junio C Hamano.

Signed-off-by: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/user-manual.txt |   29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/user-manual.txt b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
index 67ebffa..3fcbc36 100644
--- a/Documentation/user-manual.txt
+++ b/Documentation/user-manual.txt
@@ -40,6 +40,35 @@ without any explanation.
 Finally, see <<todo>> for ways that you can help make this manual more
 complete.
 
+[[getting-started]]
+Getting started
+=============
+
+Various configuration options affect how git operates. Some are specific to
+the user (e.g. if you prefer to see the output in colour), while some are
+specific to a repository (e.g. what other repositories it interacts with).
+
+For example, you can tell git to use color in the output of commands such as
+`git diff` by setting the `color.ui` option:
+------------------------------------------------
+$ git config --global color.ui auto
+------------------------------------------------
+
+Note that in this case the option is stored in the 'global' configuration. If
+you don't specify `--global`, then the option will be stored on the local
+(repository) configuration, which is probably not what you want.
+
+The options are stored in plain text files that you can view, or edit manually
+using the `--edit` option, and the format is very simple:
+------------------------------------------------
+$ git config --global --edit
+[color]
+        ui = auto
+------------------------------------------------
+
+This manual covers many configuration options (such as `color.ui`). For
+more details on the `git config` command, as well as all configuration
+options see linkgit:git-config[1].
 
 [[repositories-and-branches]]
 Repositories and Branches
-- 
1.6.5.1