Git Basics

TL;DR

1. Initial configuration

Whether you are trying to version control your project on your local machine or trying to keep a copy in the cloud, you need to let the file system know that you want Git to watch over your files. We do it by running

git init

This command basically initializes git and declares the project folder as a working directory for git.

To give yourself an identity when dealing with Git files, you should set your name and email address:

git config --global user.name 'Sardor Nazirov'
git config --global user.email 'abc@email.com'

2. Adding changes to staging area

Once you git init in your project folder, you are good to go to make modifications to your files. After you are satisfied with the changes, next you need to add the changes to the git staging area. Staging area is a place where changes get organized/collected before actually saving it in the repository.

To add a specific file to staging area:

git add <file name>

For example, git add start.py.

To add multiple specific files to staging area:

git add <file name> <file name>

To add all changes to the staging area:

git add .

Notice the dot (.) in the third approach. It tracks down all changes in the project and adds them under control of git.

Removing files from staging area

git rm --cached <file name>

3. Committing changes to repository

When necessary changes are added to the staging area, next we need to commit them to the repository.

git commit -m "Initial Commit"

You can also check the status by running git status.

4. Pushing local repository to cloud (Github)

First of all, navigate to Github and create a repository. Then copy the remote repository location:

Then on the git working directory, run

git remote add origin git@github.com:nazirov91/git_basics_demo.git
git push -u origin master

Make sure to change the repo name.

git push -u origin master this command is executed only once. After you add the changes to the master branch, you can simply run git push to push your changes to remote repository.

5. Branching

In order to create a new branch from the master branch, run

git checkout -b <branch name>

See a list of branches

git branch

Checkout a branch MyBranch

git checkout MyBranch

Merge MyBranch to master branch while on master branch

git merge MyBranch

6. Stashing

Stashing is just like putting changes on the side and reverting back to original temporarily. It is really useful when you are in the middle of making changes and then you realize you need to switch branches to check something.

Stash changes

git stash

Take the last change off the stash

git stash pop

Summary

Tags

• git
• github