put this in .bash_profile to set up git variables

snippet.sh

# set up git author details for commits and merges
export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="Richard West"
export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL=rwest@mit.edu
export GIT_COMMITTER_NAME="Richard West"
export GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL=rwest@mit.edu
# change the default editor from vi to emacs
export GIT_EDITOR=emacs  # doesn't work with the old version of git on monch
export VISUAL=emacs # a more generic system-wide editor command that does the trick