Git Setup for a New Project: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide
Introduction
Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is a tool that tracks every change you make to your code, like a timeline. If something breaks, you can always go back to an earlier working version. It allows multiple developers to collaborate on a project efficiently without overwriting each other’s work, by maintaining a complete history of all modifications.
The Three States in Git
Git has three main states that files can reside in:
- Modified: Modified means the file has been changed, but the changes are not committed to Git yet.
- Staged: Staged means that you have marked a modified file in its current version to go into your next commit snapshot.
- Committed: Committed means that the data is safely stored in your local database.
Installing Git
Download Git from https://git-scm.com/ and add to PATH.
Git Cheat Sheet
Getting Started
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| git init | Start a new repo |
| git clone | Clone an existing repo |
Prepare to Commit
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| git add | Add untracked file or unstaged changes |
| git add . | Add all untracked files and unstaged changes |
| git add -p | Choose which parts of a file to stage |
| git mv | Move file |
| git rm | Delete file |
| git rm –cached | Tell Git to forget about a file without deleting it |
| git reset | Unstage one file |
| git reset | Unstage everything |
| git status | Check what you added |
Configure Git
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| git config user.name ‘Your Name’ | Set a config option |
| git add . | Set option globally |
| git config alias.st status | Add an alias |
| man git-config | See all possible config options |