Installing/learning Git
• Git website: http://git-scm.com/
– Free on-line book: http://git-scm.com/book
– Reference page for Git: http://gitref.org/index.html
– Git tutorial: http://schacon.github.com/git/gittutorial.html
– Git for Computer Scientists:
• http://eagain.net/articles/git-for-computer-scientists/
• At command line: (where verb = config, add, commit, etc.)
– git help verb
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Centralized VCS
• In Subversion, CVS, Perforce, etc.
A central server repository (repo)
holds the "official copy" of the code
– the server maintains the sole
version history of the repo
• You make "checkouts" of it
to your local copy
– you make local modifications
– your changes are not versioned
• When you're done, you
"check in" back to the server
– your checkin increments the repo's version
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Distributed VCS (Git)
• In git, mercurial, etc., you don't "checkout"
from a central repo
– you "clone" it and "pull" changes from it
• Your local repo is a complete copy
of everything on the remote server
– yours is "just as good" as theirs
• Many operations are local:
– check in/out from local repo
– commit changes to local repo
– local repo keeps version history
• When you're ready, you can "push" changes back to server
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Git snapshots
• Centralized VCS like Subversion Subversion
track version data on each
individual file.
• Git keeps "snapshots" of the
entire state of the project.
– Each checkin version of the
overall code has a copy of Git
each file in it.
– Some files change on a given
checkin, some do not.
– More redundancy, but faster.
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Local git areas
• In your local copy on git,
files can be:
– In your local repo
• (committed)
– Checked out and modified,
but not yet committed
• (working copy)
– Or, in-between, in
a "staging" area Unmodified/modified Staged Committed
• Staged files are ready Files Files Files
to be committed.
• A commit saves a snapshot of all staged state.
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Basic Git workflow
• Modify files in your working directory.
• Stage files, adding snapshots of them to your staging area.
• Commit, which takes the files in the staging area and stores
that snapshot permanently to your Git directory.
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Git commit checksums
• In Subversion each modification to the central repo increments
the version # of the overall repo.
– In Git, each user has their own copy of the repo, and commits
changes to their local copy of the repo before pushing to the
central server.
– So Git generates a unique SHA-1 hash (40 character string
of hex digits) for every commit.
– Refers to commits by this ID rather than a version number.
– Often we only see the first 7 characters:
• 1677b2d Edited first line of readme
• 258efa7 Added line to readme
• 0e52da7 Initial commit
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Initial Git configuration
• Set the name and email for Git to use when you commit:
– git config --global user.name "Bugs Bunny"
– git config --global user.email [email protected]
– You can call git config –list to verify these are set.
• Set the editor that is used for writing commit messages:
– git config --global core.editor nano
• (it is vim by default)
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Creating a Git repo
Two common scenarios: (only do one of these)
• To create a new local Git repo in your current directory:
– git init
• This will create a .git directory in your current directory.
• Then you can commit files in that directory into the repo.
– git add filename
– git commit –m "commit message"
• To clone a remote repo to your current directory:
– git clone url localDirectoryName
• This will create the given local directory, containing a working copy of
the files from the repo, and a .git directory (used to hold the
staging area and your actual local repo)
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Git commands
command description
!git!clone!url$[dir]$ copy a Git repository so you can add to it
!git!add!file$ adds file contents to the staging area
!git!commit$ records a snapshot of the staging area
!git!status$ view the status of your files in the working
directory and staging area
!git!diff$ shows diff of what is staged and what is
modified but unstaged
!git!help![command]$ get help info about a particular command
!git!pull$ fetch from a remote repo and try to merge
into the current branch
!git!push$ push your new branches and data to a remote
repository
others:!init,!reset,!branch,!checkout,!merge,!log,!tag!
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Add and commit a file
• The first time we ask a file to be tracked, and every time
before we commit a file, we must add it to the staging area:
– git add Hello.java Goodbye.java
• Takes a snapshot of these files, adds them to the staging area.
• In older VCS, "add" means "start tracking this file." In Git, "add"
means "add to staging area" so it will be part of the next commit.
• To move staged changes into the repo, we commit:
– git commit –m "Fixing bug #22"
• To undo changes on a file before you have committed it:
– git reset HEAD -- filename (unstages the file)
– git checkout -- filename (undoes your changes)
– All these commands are acting on your local version of repo.
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Viewing/undoing changes
• To view status of files in working directory and staging area:
– git status or git status –s (short version)
• To see what is modified but unstaged:
– git diff
• To see a list of staged changes:
– git diff --cached
• To see a log of all changes in your local repo:
– git log or git log --oneline (shorter version)
1677b2d Edited first line of readme
258efa7 Added line to readme
0e52da7 Initial commit
• git log -5 (to show only the 5 most recent updates), etc.
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An example workflow
[rea@attu1 superstar]$ emacs rea.txt
[rea@attu1 superstar]$ git status
no changes added to commit
(use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
[rea@attu1 superstar]$ git status -s
M rea.txt
[rea@attu1 superstar]$ git diff
diff --git a/rea.txt b/rea.txt
[rea@attu1 superstar]$ git add rea.txt
[rea@attu1 superstar]$ git status
# modified: rea.txt
[rea@attu1 superstar]$ git diff --cached
diff --git a/rea.txt b/rea.txt
[rea@attu1 superstar]$ git commit -m "Created new text file"
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Branching and merging
Git uses branching heavily to switch between multiple tasks.
• To create a new local branch:
– git branch name
• To list all local branches: (* = current branch)
– git branch
• To switch to a given local branch:
– git checkout branchname
• To merge changes from a branch into the local master:
– git checkout master
– git merge branchname
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Merge conflicts
• The conflicting file will contain <<< and >>> sections to
indicate where Git was unable to resolve a conflict:
<<<<<<< HEAD:index.html
<div id="footer">todo: message here</div> branch 1's version
=======
<div id="footer">
thanks for visiting our site branch 2's version
</div>
>>>>>>> SpecialBranch:index.html
• Find all such sections, and edit them to the proper state
(whichever of the two versions is newer / better / more
correct).
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Interaction w/ remote repo
• Push your local changes to the remote repo.
• Pull from remote repo to get most recent changes.
– (fix conflicts if necessary, add/commit them to your local repo)
• To fetch the most recent updates from the remote repo into
your local repo, and put them into your working directory:
– git pull origin master
• To put your changes from your local repo in the remote repo:
– git push origin master
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GitHub
• GitHub.com is a site for online storage of Git repositories.
– You can create a remote repo there and push code to it.
– Many open source projects use it, such as the Linux kernel.
– You can get free space for open source projects,
or you can pay for private projects.
• Free private repos for educational use: github.com/edu
• Question: Do I always have to use GitHub to use Git?
– Answer: No! You can use Git locally for your own purposes.
– Or you or someone else could set up a server to share files.
– Or you could share a repo with users on the same file system, as
long everyone has the needed file permissions).
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