DEV Community: Johan G

Git: Amending Commits

Johan G — Mon, 30 May 2022 15:12:42 +0000

There are times after making a commit then reality hits:

Forgot one or more files to be included in the commit
Commit message looks silly, unclear, unprofessional,etc. Whatever the reason is, it needs to be edited.

Instead of making a brand new separate commit, the previous commit can be "redo" using
git commit --amend

Change Git default branch name

Johan G — Mon, 30 May 2022 13:34:38 +0000

Prior to Git 2.28, the default branch name when git init is used is master.

To change the default branch name use the command

git config --global init.defaultBranch [new default name]

More details, can be found here.

Git: Commit (and ignore files from commit)

Johan G — Wed, 11 May 2022 04:57:16 +0000

The Basic Git Commit Workflow

Make Changes
Add Changes
Commit

1. Make Changes

Make new files, edit files, delete files, etc. in a location that is tracked by Git.

2. Add Changes

Group specific changes together, in preparation of committing. The changes added in this step are not committed yet to the repo. Consider this step as a Staging step/area.
git add [file1] [file2]
Explicitly add the files to be added.
git add .
Stage ALL changes at once.

3. Commit

Commit everything that was previously added.
git commit -m "Describe the commit here"
The -m flag is to pass an inline commit message. Without this flag, a text editor will be launched to give a commit message.

Ignoring Files

There are some files that should not be committed such as:

Temporary files, build results, and files generated by an IDE
Secrets, API keys, credentials, etc.
Log files
Dependencies & packages

To ignore those files create .gitignore file in the root of a repo. Inside the file, write patterns to tell git which files & folders to ignore.

See this example of ignoring files generated by Visual Studio.

Git: Create a repo

Johan G — Fri, 06 May 2022 10:27:57 +0000

Git Repository
A Git Repository, commonly referred to as a "Repo", is a container that tracks and manages files withing a folder.

Anytime we want to use git to track our project, we need to create a new git repository.

We can create as many repos as we want on our machine. Each repo has its own histories and contents.

Create a new Git Repo
To create a new git repository, execute the command below from the top-level folder containing the project
git init

Additional Notes

Git tracks a directory and all nested subdirectories.
Because of point #1, do not execute git init inside of an existing repo
- Execute git status to verify that you are not inside of an existing repo.
  - If you get fatal: not a git repository or any of the parent directories: .git, then you're not inside of an existing repo.

Configure Git with name and email

Johan G — Thu, 05 May 2022 06:16:05 +0000

To check if Git is configured with your username
git config user.name

To check if Git is configured with your email address
git config user.email

To configure the name that Git will associate with your work
git config --global user.name "Your Name"

To configure the email address in Git
git config --global user.email abc@test.com

Install Git on a Windows Machine

Johan G — Thu, 05 May 2022 05:42:50 +0000

Download and install Git for Windows
- https://git-scm.com/download/win
- Select "Launch Git Bash" on the last step of the Installation
On Git Bash, execute git --version
- This is to confirm that Git is successfully installed

Note on Git Bash:

Git was designed to run on a Unix-based interface (like Bash)
Windows comes with different command line interface called Command Prompt that is not Unix-based
Git Bash is a tool that emulates a Bash experience on a Windows machine