can not commit because unable to auto-detect email address

[Tim Richardson]

I can not do commit -a
It fails with the message
fatal: unable to auto-detect email address (got 'tim@whitlam.(none)')

the error message helpfully suggests
*** Please tell me who you are.

Run

  git config --global user.email "<email address hidden>"
  git config --global user.name "Your Name"

to set your account's default identity.

I have done these steps for my user name, but the error persists.
This happens with a new git (git init) and with cloned repositories.

Description: Ubuntu 13.04
Release: 13.04

git:
  Installed: 1:1.8.1.2-1
  Candidate: 1:1.8.1.2-1
  Version table:

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: git 1:1.8.1.2-1
Uname: Linux 3.8.13-030813-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun May 19 16:51:31 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-01-25 (114 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release i386 (20121017.1)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: git
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-03-28 (51 days ago)

[Tim Richardson (tim-richardson)]

PS
tim@whitlam:~/git_scratchpad$ git config --global -l
<email address hidden>
tim.name=Tim Richardson
tim@whitlam:~/git_scratchpad$

[Tim Richardson (tim-richardson)]

correct is
git config --global user.email "<email address hidden>"

not
git config --global you.email "<email address hidden>"