Git essentials

Git allows software developers (and even anyone who works with any kind of data) to share bundles of files called repositories:

• Each person can have a local repository
  • they can then push that to a remote repository (typically on GitHub.com)
• Many people can work on the same remote repository
  • each person who works on this repository pulls the remote repository into their own local repository
• Everything magically gets merged based on changes called diffs...
  • ...unless a conflict happens in which case developers typically resolve the conflict (or pull their hair and/or limbs out)

When things run smoothly enough, Git can feel like the most useful thing in the world as it:

• tracks changes
• allows us to rollback changes
• shows who did something, line-by-line
• simplifies code review by a lot
• promotes open source development
• avoids emails with attachments with names like "Copy of Copy of Update (1).extension"

Git basics

To "get by with Git", one just needs to know "the flow" in addition to these actions:

• Cloning
  • copying a remote repository to one's own "local" computer
• Initializing
  • starting a local repository
• Staging
  • preparing changes to a local repository for a commit (onto a remote repository)
• Committing
  • confirming changes to a local repository
• Pushing
  • sending committed changes from a local repository to a remote repository
• Pulling
  • "fetching" changes from a remote repository to a local repository
• Branching
  • creating a separate sub-version ("checking out a new branch") of a repository
• Merging
  • requesting an integration of a sub-branch into the main branch
  • confirmation of this merge usually via a "pull request approval"
• Stashing
  • hiding changes made into some local cache
  • continue working on other stuff without those changes
  • "unstash" those changes later when it's more convenient

Many more idiosyncratic terms in the Git universe exist!