$ man git-diff
------------------------------------------------
-It is a good idea to introduce yourself to git before doing any
-operation. The easiest way to do so is:
+It is a good idea to introduce yourself to git with your name and
+public email address before doing any operation. The easiest
+way to do so is:
------------------------------------------------
-$ cat >~/.gitconfig <<\EOF
-[user]
- name = Your Name Comes Here
- email = you@yourdomain.example.com
-EOF
+$ git repo-config --global user.name "Your Name Comes Here"
+$ git repo-config --global user.email you@yourdomain.example.com
------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------
$ tar xzf project.tar.gz
$ cd project
-$ git init-db
+$ git init
------------------------------------------------
Git will reply
You've now initialized the working directory--you may notice a new
directory created, named ".git". Tell git that you want it to track
-every file under the current directory with (notice the dot '.'
-that means the current directory):
+every file under the current directory (note the '.') with:
------------------------------------------------
$ git add .
will prompt you for a commit message, then record the current state
of all the files to the repository.
+Making changes
+--------------
+
Try modifying some files, then run
------------------------------------------------
$ git diff
------------------------------------------------
-to review your changes. When you're done,
+to review your changes. When you're done, tell git that you
+want the updated contents of these files in the commit and then
+make a commit, like this:
------------------------------------------------
-$ git commit file1 file2...
+$ git add file1 file2 file3
+$ git commit
------------------------------------------------
-will again prompt your for a message describing the change, and then
-record the new versions of the files you listed. It is cumbersome
-to list all files and you can say `-a` (which stands for 'all')
-instead.
+This will again prompt your for a message describing the change, and then
+record the new versions of the files you listed.
+
+Alternatively, instead of running `git add` beforehand, you can use
------------------------------------------------
$ git commit -a
------------------------------------------------
+which will automatically notice modified (but not new) files.
+
A note on commit messages: Though not required, it's a good idea to
begin the commit message with a single short (less than 50 character)
line summarizing the change, followed by a blank line and then a more
thorough description. Tools that turn commits into email, for
-example, use the first line on the Subject line and the rest of the
+example, use the first line on the Subject: line and the rest of the
commit in the body.
$ git log -p
------------------------------------------------
+Often the overview of the change is useful to get a feel of
+each step
+
+------------------------------------------------
+$ git log --stat --summary
+------------------------------------------------
+
Managing branches
-----------------
made in each. To merge the changes made in experimental into master, run
------------------------------------------------
-$ git pull . experimental
+$ git merge experimental
------------------------------------------------
If the changes don't conflict, you're done. If there are conflicts,
will show a nice graphical representation of the resulting history.
+At this point you could delete the experimental branch with
+
+------------------------------------------------
+$ git branch -d experimental
+------------------------------------------------
+
+This command ensures that the changes in the experimental branch are
+already in the current branch.
+
If you develop on a branch crazy-idea, then regret it, you can always
delete the branch with
The "pull" command thus performs two operations: it fetches changes
from a remote branch, then merges them into the current branch.
-You can perform the first operation alone using the "git fetch"
-command. For example, Alice could create a temporary branch just to
-track Bob's changes, without merging them with her own, using:
+When you are working in a small closely knit group, it is not
+unusual to interact with the same repository over and over
+again. By defining 'remote' repository shorthand, you can make
+it easier:
+
+------------------------------------------------
+$ git remote add bob /home/bob/myrepo
+------------------------------------------------
+
+With this, you can perform the first operation alone using the
+"git fetch" command without merging them with her own branch,
+using:
-------------------------------------
-$ git fetch /home/bob/myrepo master:bob-incoming
+$ git fetch bob
-------------------------------------
-which fetches the changes from Bob's master branch into a new branch
-named bob-incoming. Then
+Unlike the longhand form, when Alice fetches from Bob using a
+remote repository shorthand set up with `git remote`, what was
+fetched is stored in a remote tracking branch, in this case
+`bob/master`. So after this:
-------------------------------------
-$ git log -p master..bob-incoming
+$ git log -p master..bob/master
-------------------------------------
shows a list of all the changes that Bob made since he branched from
Alice's master branch.
-After examining those changes, and possibly fixing things, Alice
-could pull the changes into her master branch:
+After examining those changes, Alice
+could merge the changes into her master branch:
-------------------------------------
-$ git checkout master
-$ git pull . bob-incoming
+$ git merge bob/master
-------------------------------------
-The last command is a pull from the "bob-incoming" branch in Alice's
-own repository.
-
-Alice could also perform both steps at once with:
+This `merge` can also be done by 'pulling from her own remote
+tracking branch', like this:
-------------------------------------
-$ git pull /home/bob/myrepo master:bob-incoming
+$ git pull . remotes/bob/master
-------------------------------------
-This is just like the "git pull /home/bob/myrepo master" that we saw
-before, except that it also stores the unmerged changes from bob's
-master branch in bob-incoming before merging them into Alice's
-current branch. Note that git pull always merges into the current
-branch, regardless of what else is given on the commandline.
+Note that git pull always merges into the current branch,
+regardless of what else is given on the commandline.
Later, Bob can update his repo with Alice's latest changes using
Note that he doesn't need to give the path to Alice's repository;
when Bob cloned Alice's repository, git stored the location of her
-repository in the file .git/remotes/origin, and that location is used
-as the default for pulls.
-
-Bob may also notice a branch in his repository that he didn't create:
+repository in the repository configuration, and that location is
+used for pulls:
-------------------------------------
-$ git branch
-* master
- origin
+$ git repo-config --get remote.origin.url
+/home/bob/myrepo
-------------------------------------
-The "origin" branch, which was created automatically by "git clone",
-is a pristine copy of Alice's master branch; Bob should never commit
-to it.
+(The complete configuration created by git-clone is visible using
+"git repo-config -l", and the gitlink:git-repo-config[1] man page
+explains the meaning of each option.)
+
+Git also keeps a pristine copy of Alice's master branch under the
+name "origin/master":
+
+-------------------------------------
+$ git branch -r
+ origin/master
+-------------------------------------
If Bob later decides to work from a different host, he can still
perform clones and pulls using the ssh protocol:
$ git show c82a22c39cbc32576f64f5c6b3f24b99ea8149c7
-------------------------------------
-But there other ways to refer to commits. You can use any initial
+But there are other ways to refer to commits. You can use any initial
part of the name that is long enough to uniquely identify the commit:
-------------------------------------
$ git show experimental # the tip of the "experimental" branch
-------------------------------------
-Every commit has at least one "parent" commit, which points to the
-previous state of the project:
+Every commit usually has one "parent" commit
+which points to the previous state of the project:
-------------------------------------
$ git show HEAD^ # to see the parent of HEAD
$ git diff v2.5:Makefile HEAD:Makefile.in
-------------------------------------
-You can also use "git cat-file -p" to see any such file:
+You can also use "git show" to see any such file:
-------------------------------------
-$ git cat-file -p v2.5:Makefile
+$ git show v2.5:Makefile
-------------------------------------
Next Steps