Git version Control
To any aspiring developer, Git is one of the most important tools ypu will use on a day to day basis. Whether working on personal projects or collaborating with a team. It helps you track changes, manage code versions, and safely manage projects over time.Understanding Git early in your journey will make you a more efficient, confident and professional developer.
In this Article, you are going to dive into something really interesting.
To start, we will talk about Version Control.
Version Control
Lets look at an example, Suppose you have been working on a project as a team, you have spent days and weeks working on it.Your Supervisor loves it a few days later she asks you to make a few changes on the project,Months later she comes back and says
"actually the other version was better". How do you handle this?
Challenges like those are the ones the Git solves. That is why it is reffered to as Version control it allows one to revert selected files or an entire project back to a previous state, see who made changes last, and compare changes overtime with different developers working on the same project.
Approaches to use Git for version control
Git via command line.
it is the most common method used, developers use terminal commands to interact with Git. The following steps guide you go to navigate through:
Step one; Download and install Git.
Download and install Git, after intallation verify the Git version by running the following command
git --version
Step two; Iniatialize a Git repository
Open a terminal on Gitbash and navigate to your project folder.
Iniatialize Git by runnning
git init
Step three; Staging changes
Staging means you are saying "my changes are ready and they can move to the next step" you can run the following commands to stage your files git add filename stages a specific file. git add stages all changes/add all files.
Step Four; Committing Changes
Committing means permanently saving those changes to your local repository.
To commit changes use the following commands
git commit
Step five; Viewing Commit History
This lets you see what changed,who changed it and when using Git. you can see the full history using the following commands
git log
After Seeing how Git acts as a version control, we will see how you can track changes on Git.
Tracking Changes with Git
When working on a project it is easy to lose track on which files have been modified, Now here where git status comes in it acts as a checkpoint, it helps you see what has changed in your project or what needs attention before you commit.
Git Push
The Git push command is basically used to upload commits from your local repository to a remote repository e.g. Github.This allows other developers to see and access your work.
When to use:
You have committed meaningful changes.
You want to share your work with teammates.
You want to back up your code to a remote repository.
Use the following command when you want to push a commit
git push
Git pull
The git pull command is used to update your local repository with changes made to a remote repository.
When to use git pull
Before starting to work on a shared project to ensure you are working on the latest version of the code.
Before Pushing changes to avoid conflicts with new updates from others.
use the following command when you want to pull
git pull
Knowing how to use Git might be tricky in the early stages but once you know how to track changes, push your work and pull updates collaborating with others and managing your projects becomes easier.
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