What is Git?

Git is Source Control Management Software. It is a project management tool, with the goal of maintaining a digital projects history. It does this by tracking changes of the contents within a folder/directory. It also makes it easy to share projects remotely, across the internet, without having to transfer the entire project.

Vocabulary

1. Repository
   • Location where changes are tracked.
2. Commit
   • Set of changes to apply to the projects history.
3. Branch
   • A collection of commits.

Commands

     user:~/project/tutorial$ git init

• Creates a new Git repository in the current location. The repository will contain one branch, named "master" and no commits.
• See git-init

     user:~/project/tutorial$ git add .

• This tells Git that you would like to track the history for all files and folders within this directory.
• See git-add

     user:~/project/tutorial$ git commit -m "Initial Commit"

• This command will add all the current changes, to the repositories history.
• See git-commit

You now have a repository that contains:

• Any files within this folder.
• A "master" branch.
• A single commit with a message of "Initial Commit".

In order to add more changes, you should repeat the second and third commands any time you make changes to the contents of the folder.
Note: Make sure you change the message for your commits, because that will be the quickest way to tell what you changed with the commit.

     user:~/project/tutorial$ git revert <commit>

• Undo the changes recorded within a commit. Does not erase the original commit, merely undoes the changes that were recorded.
• The commit must be done through a reference. You can find the hash(ID) for a commit by running "git log". You cannot specify a message.

More Information

This article is intended to be a quick and dirty introduction of the most basic concepts and commands to get up and running with Git. How to start a repository, how to add history, how to undo history. You can check back on this series for more in-depth guides in the future. As well as follow the links provided below for more information.

• Git Everyday for a more comprehensive guide from the maintainers.
• Git Reference the reference manual for Git.
• Github - Hello World for how to get started sharing your projects with the world.

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