Playing around with GIT

"Git is distributed version control system focused on speed, effectivity and real-world usability on large projects." It's a wonderful tool for individual developers to work on codes in a peer-to-peer approach.

I still have yet to try more about Git, but for now I'll show how Git can be used as a tool that can backtrack any progress when working on some local files.

Here's how I played around Git:

I created a parent directory called testplay which contains a directory for the nled package.
All the commands that follow are done inside the testplay directory.

To let Git take revision control of the directory, I typed:

#git init

Git initializes with the message "Initialized empty Git repository in /home/user/testplay/.git/"

So far Git has no idea about the files or "lines" that it will track. In order for Git to have a snapshot of the directory, 2 commands are needed:

#git add .

AND

#git commit

This enables Git to store the snapshot permanently in the repository. Every commit creates a version (When commit is run, Git automatically takes the user to Vi editor for a commit message).

Alternatively, using git commit -a does the same purpose as git add and git commit.

Branches

The snapshot/version I created was made under a "branch" named "master" by default. Any commits will update this branch. Git can have multiple branches. Branches are names that points to a particular commit. Given are the commands used to best explain what branches are and what they do.

Display the branches in the repository

#git branch

In my case, I only have 1 branch so the output shows:
* master (where the "*" tells the user that the master branch is active.)

Create another branch from the master branch

#git branch extend1

Git now has 2 branches. I can now create 2 versions of my project based on these branches. A commit or change in one branch wouldn't affect the other unless merged.

To make a desired branch active (In my case 'extend1'):

#git checkout extend1

Produces a message: "Switched to branch 'extend1'"

I created a random file inside the nled/ directory and ran the git add and git commit. If I go back to my "master" branch, the file I created wouldn't be visible; this approach is very useful for debugging and testing out program compilations. :)

Useful Links

Official Git page
gittutorial page
gitmagic