What is Git: A Beginner’s Guide

Necessity often drives great discoveries. 

That is exactly what happened. A single licensing dispute transformed the entire landscape of software development.

In 2005, the relationship between the Linux development community and BitKeeper, the proprietary version control system they had been using, broke down when BitKeeper revoked their free license.

Unsatisfied with existing alternatives like CVS and SVN, Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, decided to create his own version control system.

Within weeks, the foundation of a new development paradigm came into existence. It was named Git by the creator.

In this guide, we will discuss what Git is, its features, and all the fundamentals.

Let’s start with an overview of what Git is.

What is Git?

Git is a widely adopted, open-source distributed version control system (DVCS) that enables developers to efficiently track changes to source code during software development.

The primary purpose of Git is to:

• Monitor and record alterations to file and directory structures across a timeline.
• Enable developers to restore earlier versions as needed.
• Support branching and merging for parallel development.
• Facilitate collaboration among distributed teams.

What is Git Used For?

Git has become an essential tool in software development. Its wide range of applications and features make it valuable for managing projects of all sizes. Let us see some of the use cases for which Git is used.

Version Control for Source Code

The primary use of Git is for version control in software development, where developers can track changes, including who made the changes, when, and why. In case of any errors, they can roll back to the previous version. In addition, due to Git’s branching capabilities, teams can work in parallel, with each developer making changes independently and without disrupting others.

Collaboration and Code Review

Git facilitates collaboration among developers, helping teams to work together effectively on complex projects. Its shared repository feature allows developers to know the changes made and incorporate their work into it. It also allows developers to review code, and make modifications before implementing. 

Branching and Merging

One of Git’s most powerful features is its branching and merging capabilities. It allows developers to work simultaneously without interfering with each other, experiment with new features without risking the stability of the main project, respond quickly to critical bugs, and maintain a clear and organized development workflow.

All these are possible due to its branches or hotfix branches capabilities.

Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD)

Git is often integrated into CI/CD pipelines, automating the testing and deployment of code. Git repositories serve as the central repository for all code changes. Therefore, when a code change is made, automated tests are triggered to ensure there are no bug issues. Once the code changes pass all automated tests, CI/CD pipelines can automatically deploy the changes to staging or production environments.

Document Version Control

Beyond software development, Git is used to manage versions of various types of documents. This includes technical documentation, research papers, and legal documents.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Git is extensively used in DevOps practices to manage infrastructure configurations. IaC defines infrastructure configurations using code such as Terraform, CloudFormation, or Ansible. These infrastructure code files can be tracked, modified, or even reverted back since these files are stored in Git repositories. At RedSwitches, we often use GitHub repositories to store configuration and IaC files for our server infrastructure templates 

Open Source Project Management

Git is the backbone of many open-source projects. Its forking mechanism allows users to create a personal copy of an open-source repository which in turn enables contributors to freely experiment with changes, implement new features, or fix bugs in their own isolated environment.

In addition, platforms built on Git, like GitHub, provide issue-tracking capabilities, helping manage bug reports and feature requests.

Personal Projects and Learning

Git is not just for large teams; it’s also valuable for individual developers. Developers use Git to manage and showcase their personal projects, often hosting them on platforms like GitHub or GitLab. It also allows developers to experiment with new technologies or techniques in separate branches, providing a safe environment for learning.

How Does Git Work?

In order to understand how Git works, we need to delve into its architecture, data model, and core operations.

Git’s Fundamental Architecture and Data Model

Git’s fundamental architecture is based on an object-oriented data model. This model revolves around four primary types of objects: blobs, trees, commits, and tags, which provide Git the ability to track changes and manage versions efficiently.

Blob Objects

• Blobs (Binary Large Objects) store the contents of individual files.
• They do not contain file names or directory structures, only the raw file data.
• Each blob is uniquely identified by a SHA-1 hash, ensuring that any change to the file’s content results in a distinct blob object.
  

Tree Object

• Trees represent directory structures in a project.
• They hold references to blob objects (representing files) and other tree objects (representing subdirectories).
• They also store metadata such as file names and permissions. 

Commit Objects

• Commits are snapshots of the entire project at specific points in time.
• They contain essential metadata, including the author, timestamp, and commit message.
• Each commit object points to a single tree object, representing the project’s state at that commit.

Tag Objects

• Tags mark specific points in the commit history as important, often used for release versions.
• They can be lightweight (just a pointer to a commit) or annotated (containing additional metadata).

This object-oriented model follows three stages: 

• Working Directory: Where actual files reside
• Staging Area (Index): An intermediate step for preparing changes
• Local Repository (.git Directory): Stores committed snapshots and manages project history

Let us now see how Git tracks changes and manages the version.

• Git uses SHA-1 hashes to uniquely identify objects based on their content. This allows Git to detect changes by comparing hashes, ensuring data integrity.
• Next, Git stores complete snapshots of the project at each commit. This approach allows for efficient branching and merging operations.
• Once committed, Git objects are immutable, ensuring a reliable and traceable project history.

Get Started with Git

Working with Git is an essential skill for modern software development. Let us have an overview of how to use Git.

• To begin working with Git, you first need to download the Git installer from the official Git website on your system. The installation process varies depending on your operating system.
• Once the installation is complete, configure the Git identity. This provides the ability to track revisions and work collectively with fellow developers.
• You can now perform version control. You can create a new Git repository, stage specific files, record staged changes in the repository’s history, and push and pull changes.

Core Commands and Operations

Git provides a set of essential commands for managing version control.

Basic Commands

• git init: Initializes a new Git repository
• git clone: Clones a remote repository to your local machine
• git add: Adds changes to the staging area
• git commit: Saves changes from the staging area to the repository
• git push: Uploads local repository content to a remote repository
• git pull: Fetches and integrates changes from a remote repository 

Branching and Merging

• git branch: Creates, lists, or deletes branches
• git checkout: Switches between branches or restores working tree files
• git merge: Integrates changes from a different branch

The following table gives you all commands you need to start using Git in your projects. 

A Typical Git Workflow For Software Projects

If you’re new to Git, understanding how all the pieces fit together can feel overwhelming. To make things simpler, let’s walk through a typical workflow that covers the essential commands you’ll use every day.

1. Initialize Your Repository

Start by turning any folder into a Git repository using:

git init

This command creates a hidden .git folder where Git stores its tracking data.

2. Check the Status

Use git status frequently. It’s your dashboard for seeing what’s staged, what’s changed, and whether you’re on the right branch:

git status

3. Stage Your Files

When you’re ready to save your work, add files with git add <filename> or stage everything using:

git add.

4. Commit Your Changes

Lock in your snapshot with:

git commit -m “Your message”

Make sure you add clear and descriptive commit messages to make collaboration easier with other developers on the team.

5. Connect to a Remote

If you’re using GitHub, link your local repo with:

git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git

Once executed, you can push the code online.

6. Push to Remote

Use the following command to “push” the code to the remote repository:

git push -u origin main

The -u flag sets the upstream branch for easier future pushes.

7. Pull Updates

If you’re collaborating with others, keep your local repo up-to-date with:

git pull

8. Review History

git log shows your commit history. Adding –oneline condenses it for quick reviews:

git log –oneline

9. Branching and Switching

Branches are your sandbox for experimenting without breaking the main codebase. Use git branch to create new branches and git checkout to switch between them.

git branch feature-login

git checkout feature-login

10. Merge Branches

When your changes are ready, integrate your branch back into main:

git merge feature-login

11. Delete Branches

Clean up old branches with:

git branch -d feature-login

12. Delete a Repository

Important: This action is permanent!

If you’re practicing locally and want to start fresh, you can delete the .git folder entirely:

rm -rf .git

Note that the exact commands you use for version control of your project depend on how many collaborators you have, the nature of the codebase, and the milestones you have for delivery. 

Criticism of Git

Git, despite its widespread adoption and powerful features, has faced several criticisms from developers and industry experts. These criticisms primarily focus on its user interface, learning curve, performance issues with large repositories, and handling of binary files.

Complex User Interface and Steep Learning Curve

This is one of the most significant criticisms of Git. Its complex user interface and in-depth learning curve can make beginners difficult to grasp. 

In addition, its non-intuitive and inconsistent command syntax, complex or confusing terminologies that are not always self-explanatory, cryptic error messages that are difficult to understand, and the lack of built-in GUI challenges the developers.

Performance Issues with Large Repositories

The next major criticism Git faces is its issues with large repositories. 

The operation time to execute large repositories, and scalability issues when dealing with large repositories are a few major concerns for large-scale software development projects.

Inefficient Handling of Large Binary Files

Git is optimized for text files and, therefore, struggles with the size and nature of binary files. The inclusion of large binary files in a Git repository can cause the repository size to increase, causing performance issues. While Git LFS (Large File Storage) is often used to address the limitations of handling large files, it introduces additional complexity in managing repositories.

Network and Cloning Issues

Git can face network-related issues, especially when cloning large repositories. Problems such as broken pipe errors can occur due to network instability or server configuration issues. In addition, cloning large repositories over HTTP can result in errors if the repository contains a large number of files or revisions.

Conclusion

Git has a transformative impact on modern software development, revolutionizing how developers collaborate, manage code, and build software.

Its distributed nature has fundamentally changed how developers work with version control systems. 

FAQs

What is Git, and why is it used?

Git is a version control system that tracks changes in code, helps developers collaborate, and allows them to revert to previous versions if needed. It is widely used for managing software development projects efficiently.

How do I install Git on my system?

To install Git, download the latest version from git-scm.com and follow the installation instructions for your operating system. You can also install Git using package managers like:

Windows: winget install –id Git.Git -e –source winget

Mac: brew install git

Linux: sudo apt install git (for Debian-based systems)

What are some basic Git commands every beginner should know?

Here are a few essential Git commands:

git init: Initialize a new repository

git clone <repo_url>: Clone an existing repository

git status: Show the status of changes in the working directory

git add <file>: Stage changes for commit

git commit -m “message”: Save changes to the repository

git push origin main: Push changes to a remote repository

git pull origin main: Fetch and merge updates from a remote repository

What is a remote branch in Git?

A remote branch is a branch stored on a remote server (like GitHub or GitLab) that multiple developers can access. It allows teams to collaborate by syncing code between local and remote repositories. You can list all remote branches using:

git branch -r

How can I check my current branch in Git?

To check the branch you are currently working on, use: git branch –show-current

Alternatively, running git status will also display the current branch.

What is the default branch in Git?

The default branch is the main development branch of a repository. Traditionally, Git used master as the default branch, but now many repositories use main instead. You can check the default branch by running: git remote show origin

What are untracked files in Git?

Untracked files are files in your project directory that Git has not added to version control. To see them, use: git status

To track these files, use: git add <filename>

How do I navigate my project directory in Git?

Git operates within a project directory (repository). You can navigate it using terminal commands:

cd my_project: Change the directory to your project

ls (Linux/macOS) or dir (Windows): List files in the directory

pwd: Show the current directory path

How does Git work with a remote server?

A remote server hosts Git repositories (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket). Developers push and pull changes to/from this server. To add a remote repository, use: git remote add origin <repo_url>

To fetch updates from the remote server, run: git fetch origin

What is a pull request in Git?

A pull request (PR) is a request to merge changes from one branch into another, usually in a remote repository. PRs are used for code reviews before integrating changes into the main project. They are common in platforms like GitHub and GitLab.

How do I switch branches in Git?

To switch to another branch, use: git checkout <branch-name>

Or, in newer Git versions: git switch <branch-name>

To list all branches, use: git branch

How do I delete a remote branch in Git?

To delete a remote branch, use: git push origin –delete <branch-name>

This removes the branch from the remote repository but does not delete it from local copies.