What is git?

Git is primarily a version control system and a staple in any software development project. It usually serves 2 main purposes: code backup and code versioning. You can work on your code step-by-step, saving each step’s progress along the way in case you need to roll back to a backup copy!

Installation in macOS

• Download the latest Git for Mac installer.

• Follow the prompts to install Git.

• Open a terminal and verify the installation was successful by typing git --version

git --version
git version 2.9.2

Installation in Windows

• Download the latest Git for Windows installer.

• When you've successfully started the installer, you should see the Git Setup wizard screen. Follow the Next and Finish prompts to complete the installation. The default options are pretty sensible for most users.

• Open a Command Prompt (or Git Bash if during installation you elected not to use Git from the Windows Command Prompt).

Installation in Linux

Fedora

sudo dnf install git
## OR ##
sudo yum install git

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install git

Setup / Configure GIT

Basic setup

If you’d like, you can go ahead and save your git username and email so that you won’t have to enter them in again for future git commands.

# OPTIONAL

git config --global user.name "User Name"
git config --global user.email "email"

Colors

A neat trick that some people often miss is that you can enable some extra coloring to git so that you can read the output of the commands easier!

# OPTIONAL

git config --global color.ui true

Basic version control

Initializing git

Now we can start versioning our project. Go ahead and navigate to the directory you want to set up version control for in the terminal using the standard “cd” command. Now you can initialize a git repository like this

git init

This creates a new subdirectory named .git that contains all of your necessary repository files — a Git repository skeleton. At this point, nothing in your project is tracked yet.

Adding and committing

To start version-controlling existing files you should start by tracking those files and do an initial commit. To accomplish that, you start by adding the files to the git that you would like to be attached to your git project.

git add <file>
git commit -m 'first commit'

Remote backup

Great! You’ve now started versioning your GitHub project locally. If you would like to save and back up your project remotely, you’ll need to create a remote repository on GitHub (it’s free!). So first head on over to github.com and create a repository. Then, use the link of the repository to add it as the origin of your local git project i.e. where that code will be stored.

git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git

Then you can go ahead and push your code to GitHub… great! You’ve backed up your code!

git push origin master

Working with your files

Status Checking

The main tool you use to determine which files are in which state is the git status command. It allows you to see which of your files have already been committed and which haven’t. If you run this command when all files have already been committed and pushed, you should see something like this:

git status
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)

If you add a new file to your project, and the file didn’t exist before when you run a git status you should see your untracked file like this:

git status

# On branch master
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#   README
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

This makes git status really useful for a quick check of what you have backed up already and what you only have locally.

Advanced file adding

There are a few more advanced ways of adding files to Git that will make your workflow more efficient. Instead of trying to look for all the files that have changed and adding them one by one, we can do the following:

### Adding files one by one
git add filename

### Adding all files in the current directory
git add -A

### Adding all files changes in the current directory
git add .

### Choosing what changes to add (this will got through all your  ### changes and you can 'Y' or 'N' the changes)
git add -p

Advanced commits

Previously, we saw that we could commit a file to Git using $ git commit -m "commit message". That’s all fine and dandy for short commit messages, but if you want to do something more elaborate you’ll need a bit more:

### Commit staged file(s) 
### This is typically used for shorter commit messages
git commit -m 'commit message'

### Add file and commit in one shot
git commit filename -m 'commit message'

### Add file and commit staged file
git commit -am 'insert commit message'

### Changing your most recent commit message
git commit --amend 'new commit message' 

# Combine a sequence of commits together into a single one 
### You might use this to organise a messy commit history
git rebase -i
### This will give you an interface on your core editor:
# Commands:
#  p, pick = use commit
#  r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message
#  e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending
#  s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit
#  f, fixup = like "squash", but discard this commit's log message
#  x, exec = run command (the rest of the line) using shell

Branching and merging

The master branch of your GitHub repository should always contain working and stable code. However, you may want to also back up some code that you are currently working on but isn’t entirely stable. Maybe you’re adding a new feature, you’re experimenting and breaking the code a lot, but you still want to keep a backup to save your progress!

Branching allows you to work on a separate copy of your code without affecting the master branch. When you first create a branch, a complete clone of your master branch is created under a new name. You can then modify the code in this new branch independently, including committing files and such. Once your new feature has been fully integrated and the code is stable, you merge it into the master branch!

Branching

Here are all of the things you need to create and work on a branch:

### Create a local branch to work on
git checkout -b branchname

### Switching between 2 branches 
git checkout branch_1
git checkout branch_2
### Pushing your new local branch to remote as backup
git push -u origin branch_2

### Deleting a local branch - this won't let you delete a branch  ### that hasn't been merged yet
git branch -d branch_2

### Deleting a local branch - this WILL delete a branch even if it ### hasn't been merged yet!
git branch -D branch_2

### Viewing all current branches for the repository, including both ### local and remote branches. Great to see if you already have a ### branch for a particular feature addition, especially on bigger ### projects
git branch -a

### Viewing all branches that have been merged into your current  ### branch, including local and remote. Great for seeing where all ### your code has come from!
git branch -a --merged

### Viewing all branches that haven't been merged into your current ### branch, including local and remote
git branch -a --no-merged

### Viewing all local branches
git branch

### Viewing all remote branches
git branch -r

# Rebase master branch into local branch
git rebase origin/master

# Pushing local branch after rebasing master into local branch
git push origin +branchname

Merging

Great! Now you’ve learned how to create a branch and work with that code! Once you’re done adding the new feature to your branch, you’ll want to merge it back into the master branch, so that your master has all of the latest code features.

Here’s how to do it:

### First make sure you're looking at master branch
git checkout master

### Now merge your branch to master
git merge branch_2

That’s it! you may have to fix any code conflicts between your branch and master, but Git will show you how to do all of that after you type in that merge command.

Fixing mistakes and backtracking

Mistakes happen and they happen frequently with coding! The important thing is that we’re able to fix them.

Have no fear here! Git has everything you need in case you make a mistake with the code you push, overwrote something, or just want to make a correction to something you pushed.

### Switch to the version of the code of the most recent commit
git reset HEAD 
git reset HEAD -- filename # for a specific file

### Switch to the version of the code before the most recent commit
git reset HEAD^ -- filename
git reset HEAD^ -- filename # for a specific file

### Switch back 3 or 5 commits
git reset HEAD~3 -- filename
git reset HEAD~3 -- filename # for a specific file
git reset HEAD~5 -- filename
git reset HEAD~5 -- filename # for a specific file

### Switch back to a specific commit
### Where the '0766c053' is the commit ID
git reset 0766c053 -- filename
git reset 0766c053 -- filename # for a specific file


### The previous commands were what's known as "soft" resets. Your ### code is reset, but git will still keep a copy of the other code ### handy in case you need it. On the other hand, the --hard flag ### tells Git to overwrite all changes in the working directory.
git reset --hard 0766c053

Useful Tips and Tricks for Git

We’re all done with the nitty gritty stuff! Here are a few more Git tips and tricks you may find useful to improve your workflow!

Searching

### Searches for parts of strings in a directory
git grep 'something'

### Searches for parts of strings in a directory and the -n prints ### out the line numbers where git has found matches
git grep -n 'something'

### Searches for parts of string with some context (some lines 
### before and some after the 'something' we are looking for)
git grep -C<number of lines> 'something'

### Searches for parts of string and also shows lines BEFORE it
git grep -B<number of lines> 'something'

### Searches for parts of string and also shows lines AFTER it
git grep -A<number of lines> 'something'

Seeing who wrote what

### Show alteration history of a file with the name of the author
git blame 'filename'

### Show alteration history of a file with the name of the author ### and the git commit ID
git blame 'filename' -l

Logging

### Show a list of all commits in a repository. This command shows ### everything about a commit, such as commit ID, author, date and ### commit message.
git log

### List of commits showing only commit messages and changes
git log -p

### List of commits with the particular string you are looking for
git log -S 'something'

### List of commits by author
git log --author 'Author Name'

### Show a summary of the list of commits in a repository. This   ### shows a shorter version of the commit ID and the commit message.
git log --oneline

### Show a list of commits in a repository since yesterday
git log --since=yesterday

### Shows log by author and searching for specific term inside the ### commit message
git log --grep "term" --author "name"

Thanks for reading, this will give you a good knowledge about version controlling and you can apply it in your day-to-day projects.