A Seamless Guide To Master Git

This chapter will be about getting started with Git. We will begin by explaining some background on version control tools, then move on to how to get Git running on your system and finally how to get it set up to start working with. At the end of this chapter you should understand why Git is around, why you should use it and you should be all set up to do so.

What is "version control" and why should you care?

VCS stands for Version Control System. It is a tool that helps manage and track changes to source code or other files over time. VCS is essential for software development and other projects where maintaining a history of changes, collaboration, and versioning is critical

Why do we need VCS(Version Control System)?

• Tracking Changes It records changes to files over time, enabling developers to see who changed what and when.
• Collaboration Multiple people can work on the same project simultaneously without overwriting each other's work.
• Version History It keeps a history of all changes, making it easy to revert to previous versions if needed.
• Backup and Recovery Acts as a backup for the project.

A Short History of Git

Git, a powerful version control system, was created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 to manage the development of the Linux kernel. Before Git, Linux developers used a proprietary system called BitKeeper for version control. However, conflicts arose between the BitKeeper team and the Linux community, leading Torvalds to develop an open-source alternative.

The goal was to create a tool that was:

1. Fast
2. Distributed, allowing developers to work offline
3. Reliable, with strong support for non-linear development

Today, it's the most popular version control system, powering platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, transforming how teams collaborate on code.

What is Git?

Git is a version control system VCS designed to track changes in source code and collaborate efficiently with others. It is widely used for software development due to its speed, flexibility, and support for non-linear workflows (e.g., branching and merging).

Install

You can donwload it from here install git

Check git version

git --version

Before we dive into the coding part of Git let u know some basic command of Linux

Basic Linux Commands

1. To make a new folder or directory

mkdir <directory-name>

2. Remove a directory

rmdir <directory-name>

3. List file and directories

ls

• With details: ls -l
• Including hidden files: ls -a

4. Create a new file

touch <file-name>

5. Change directory

cd <directory>

• Go to the previous directory: cd - or cd ..
• Go to the home directory: cd ~

6. Present working directory

pwd

7. View file contents

cat <file-name>

Git Command (CheatSheet)

Most Used

95% of the time you will find yourself writing only these commands of git.

1. Initialize a new Git repository

git init

2. Show the status of the working directory

git status

3. Stage all changes in the current directory

git add .

4. Commit staged changes with a message

git commit -m "message" 

5. Push commits to a remote repository

git push

5. View commit history

git log 

• for oneline

git log --oneline

Advanced Git

Some Advanced concpets of Git

1. What is .git/ Directory?

The .git directory is a hidden folder created when you initialize a Git repository using the git init command. It is the core of your Git project and contains all the necessary metadata and history for the repository

if you go into the .git (hidden folder) by running the following command

cd .git

• config is a text file that contains your git configuration for the current repo.
• HEAD contains the current head of the repo.
• hooks contain any scripts that can be run before/after git does anything.
• objects contains the git objects, ie the data about the files, commits etc in your repo. We will go in depth into this in this blog.
• refs as we previously mentioned, stores references(pointers)

If you want to read file in .git folder you can use cat

git cat

but the file is compressed so in this case, use

git cat-file -p d439a4edae8ac1ff3bf6cc4f78b12b80f8bc87c5

2. Complete Git Flow

3. Git diff

git diff

• The git diff is an informative command that shows the differences between two commits. It is used to compare the changes made in one commit with the changes made in another commit.
• Git consider the changed versions of same file as two different files. Then it gives names to these two files and shows the differences between them.