Intermediate Git Version Control: Glossary

Git version control records text-based differences between files.

Each git commit records a change relative to the previous state of the documents.

Git has a range of functionality that allows users to manage the changes they make.

This complex functionality is especially useful when collaborating on projects with others

A fork is a server-side copy of a repository

A fork can be created on Github through the Fork button in the top right

A branch represents an independent line of development.

git branch creates a new pointer to the current state of the repository and allows you to make subsequent changes from that state.

Subsequent changes are considered to belong to that branch.

The final commit on a given branch is its HEAD.

The git remote command allows us to create, view and delete connections to other repositories.

Remote connections are like bookmarks to other repositories.

Other git commands (git fetch, git push, git pull) use these bookmarks to carry out their syncing responsibilities.

A branching model is a pre-agreed way of merging branches into the main branch.

A branching model is needed when multiple contributors are making changes to a single project.

git merge --no-ff is the best way to merge changes

git merge --ff-only is a good way to pull down changes from remote

We’ve been introduced powerful logging commands

git blame can identify when a problem line was introduced.

git bisect can be used to binary search through git history to identify lines which first introduced a problem.

git revert undoes a commit by creating a new commit.

git revert should be used to undo changes on a public branch or changes that have already been pushed remotely.

git revert only backs out a single commit or a range of commits.

git reset rolls back the commits and leaves the changes in the files

git reset --hard roll back and delete all changes

git reset alters the history of the project.

You should use git reset to undo local changes that have not been pushed to a remote repository.

git restore can restore a file in the working directory to it’s state from the repository.

git restore --staged can remove a file from the staging area but leaves it in the working directory.

git restore is a newer command and git reset can be used to do many of the same operations, but git restore has a simpler syntax.

git checkout <commit ID> can be used to move the repository back to an earlier commit.

git checkout <commit ID> -- <filename> can restore an individual file from an earlier commit

git tag allows us to mark a point we can return to.

A tag is tied to a commit.

Github includes an issue tracker for each repository where people can describe and discuss issues with code.

Issues can be opened, commented on and closed from the Github web interface.

Issues can also be closed in a commit message using ‘fixes’, ‘fixed’, ‘close’, ‘closed’ or ‘closes’ followed by a # symbol and the issue number.

(Large) binary files can grow the repository size immensely and make it unusable

git lfs is an extension that stores large files outside the Git data model

Use of Git LFS is discouraged in many scenarios.