How to upgrade git on legacy Ubuntu
Follow these steps to get git 1.7 + on ubuntu 9.10 or less. (10.04 comes with the latest version)
sudo apt-get install libcurl4-dev # (for new http[s] support)
cd /tmp
wget http://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/git-1.7.2.1.tar.gz
tar -xf git-1.7.2.1.tar.gz
cd git-1.7.2.1/
./configure
make
sudo make install
ln -nfs /usr/bin/git /usr/local/bin/git