What is Git
Git is a software which is a Version Control System, which basically keeps the track of history changes, and helps in managing different timelines for developers
Why Git is Used
It is just used to keep the hustle out, when working in teams there might be conflicts while adding some feature or fixing a bug in the code.
Git is easy to learn, and adds a lot of value
Git Basics and Core Terminologies
repository
A repository is basically like a container, with all the code files, folder in it. We can say it is like parent folder for all the code files
Commit
It is like a snapshot of your whole at that point of time. Let’s say i added a feature by adding 3 lines of code, then a commit will have information like: Author, Date & Time, Parent, Hash, etc.
Branch
Imagine all the commits are set on a track, then this track of all the history of commits is called a Branch.
Head
It is kind of a pointer which is automatically set to the latest commit.
Common Git Commands
There are hundreds of git commands, but generally you will use only a few of them in your lifetime. Some of them are mentioned below:
git init : This command sets up the folder/directory for your code. (A hidden .git folder is created in which all essentials are contained)
git status : This tells you which files are modified, untracked, tracked
git add <file_name> : This pushes the targeted file to staging area(It means that these changes are ready to commit)
git add .: This adds all the files to staging area at once.
git commit -m "your_message" : This command is to save a change permanently. The -m flag is used to give the commit a message for example: if i added a function to multiply two integers, then the message can be: add a function for multiplication.
The master is now called Main (it is the main branch)
git log : This Command shows the history of all the commits with all the information about each commit. For a compact output you can use git log -oneline
git branch : This shows all the branches for your repo.
git checkout -b "branch_name" : Creates a new branch and also switches to it at the same time.
git reset --hard <commit_hash> : Shifts the head to your desired commit and deletes the commits after that one.
git reset <commit_hash>: shifts the head, but the commits after that are transferred to staging area.
There are some of the most used and basic commands to work in git. If you want to read all the git commands read them here.
Basic Git workflow
Conclusion
Git is a very helpful tracking system for your code, you can install it in your system from here, or you can simply use a remote like Github