Beginners Guide to GIT

Here’s a concise guide to the main Git commands and what they do. These are essential for version control and collaboration in software development:

Setup & Configuration

• git config –global user.name “Your Name”
  Set your Git username.
• git config –global user.email “you@example.com“
  Set your Git email.

Repository Management

• git init
  Initialize a new Git repository.
• git clone <url>
  Copy a remote repository to your local machine.

Tracking Changes

• git status
  Show the current state of the working directory and staging area.
• git add <file>
  Stage changes for commit.
• git add .
  Stage all changes in the current directory.
• git commit -m “message”
  Save staged changes with a descriptive message.

Branching & Merging

• git branch
  List all branches.
• git branch <name>
  Create a new branch.
• git checkout <branch>
  Switch to another branch.
• git merge <branch>
  Merge changes from another branch into the current one.

Working with Remotes

• git remote -v
  View remote repository URLs.
• git push
  Upload local commits to a remote repository.
• git pull
  Fetch and merge changes from a remote repository.
• git fetch
  Download changes from a remote repository (without merging).

Viewing History

• git log
  View commit history.
• git diff
  Show changes between commits, branches, or files.
• git show <commit>
  Show details of a specific commit.

Undoing Changes

• git reset <file>
  Unstage a file.
• git checkout — <file>
  Discard changes in a file.
• git revert <commit>
  Create a new commit that undoes a previous one.

Would you like a printable cheat sheet or a visual diagram to go with this?

In Git, “staged” refers to files that have been marked to be included in the next commit. It’s part of Git’s three-stage workflow:

Git Workflow States

1. Working Directory\ This is where you make changes to your files. These changes are not yet tracked by Git for committing.
2. Staging Area (Index)\ When you run git add <file>, Git moves the file to the staging area. This means you’re telling Git:\ “I want to include this change in the next snapshot (commit).”
3. Repository (Commit History)\ When you run git commit, Git takes everything in the staging area and saves it permanently in the repository as a new commit.

Example Workflow

# You modify a file

nano hello.py

# You stage the file

git add hello.py

# You commit the staged file

git commit -m “Add greeting script”

Only files that are staged will be included in the commit. If you modify other files but don’t stage them, they won’t be part of that commit.