Git for beginners: The definitive practical guide

Question

Ok, after seeing this post by PJ Hyett, I have decided to skip to the end and go with Git.

So what I need is a beginner's practical guide to Git. "Beginner" being defined as someone who knows how to handle their compiler, understands to some level what a Makefile is, and has touched source control without understanding it very well.

"Practical" being defined as this person doesn't want to get into great detail regarding what Git is doing in the background, and doesn't even care (or know) that it's distributed. Your answers might hint at the possibilities, but try to aim for the beginner that wants to keep a 'main' repository on a 'server' which is backed up and secure, and treat their local repository as merely a 'client' resource.

So:

Installation/Setup

• How to install Git
• How do you set up Git? Try to cover Linux, Windows, Mac, think 'client/server' mindset.
  • Setup GIT Server with Msysgit on Windows
• How do you create a new project/repository?
• How do you configure it to ignore files (.obj, .user, etc) that are not really part of the codebase?

Working with the code

• How do you get the latest code?
• How do you check out code?
• How do you commit changes?
• How do you see what's uncommitted, or the status of your current codebase?
• How do you destroy unwanted commits?
• How do you compare two revisions of a file, or your current file and a previous revision?
• How do you see the history of revisions to a file?
• How do you handle binary files (visio docs, for instance, or compiler environments)?
• How do you merge files changed at the "same time"?
• How do you undo (revert or reset) a commit?

Tagging, branching, releases, baselines

• How do you 'mark' 'tag' or 'release' a particular set of revisions for a particular set of files so you can always pull that one later?
• How do you pull a particular 'release'?
• How do you branch?
• How do you merge branches?
• How do you resolve conflicts and complete the merge?
• How do you merge parts of one branch into another branch?
• What is rebasing?
• How do I track remote branches?
• How can I create a branch on a remote repository?
• How do I delete a branch on a remote repository?
• Git workflow examples

Other

• Describe and link to a good GUI, IDE plugin, etc. that makes Git a non-command line resource, but please list its limitations as well as its good.
  • msysgit - Cross platform, included with Git
  • gitk - Cross platform history viewer, included with Git
  • gitnub - Mac OS X
  • gitx - Mac OS X history viewer
  • smartgit - Cross platform, commercial, beta
  • tig - console GUI for Linux
  • qgit - GUI for Windows, Linux
  • Git Extensions - package for Windows, includes friendly GUI
• Any other common tasks a beginner should know?
  • Git Status tells you what you just did, what branch you have, and other useful information
• How do I work effectively with a subversion repository set as my source control source?

Other Git beginner's references

• Git guide
• Git book
• Git magic
• gitcasts
• GitHub guides
• Git tutorial
• Progit - book by Scott Chacon
• Git - SVN Crash Course
• Git from the bottom up
• Git ready
• gitref.org
• Git visual cheatsheet

Delving into Git

• Understanding Git conceptually
• Git for computer scientists (and another version)

I will go through the entries from time to time and 'tidy' them up so they have a consistent look/feel and it's easy to scan the list - feel free to follow a simple "header - brief explanation - list of instructions - gotchas and extra info" template. I'll also link to the entries from the bullet list above so it's easy to find them later.

Answer 1

I got started with the official Git tutorial. I think it's practical enough for beginners (I was, and still am, a beginner, by your definition! I barely grasp makefiles, I've only played a bit with Apache Subversion, etc.).

Answer 2

Console UI - Tig

Installation:

apt-get install tig

Usage

While inside a git repo, type 'tig', to view an interactive log, hit 'enter' on any log to see more information about it. h for help, which lists the basic functionality.

Trivia

"Tig" is "Git" backwards.

Answer 3

Getting the latest Code

$ git pull <remote> <branch> # fetches the code and merges it into 
                             # your working directory
$ git fetch <remote> <branch> # fetches the code but does not merge
                              # it into your working directory

$ git pull --tag <remote> <branch> # same as above but fetch tags as well
$ git fetch --tag <remote> <branch> # you get the idea

That pretty much covers every case for getting the latest copy of the code from the remote repository.

Answer 4

Well, despite the fact that you asked that we not "simply" link to other resources, it's pretty foolish when there already exists a community grown (and growing) resource that's really quite good: the Git Community Book. Seriously, this 20+ questions in a question is going to be anything but concise and consistent. The Git Community Book is available as both HTML and PDF and answers many of your questions with clear, well formatted and peer reviewed answers and in a format that allows you to jump straight to your problem at hand.

Alas, if my post really upsets you then I'll delete it. Just say so.

Answer 5

Here's a copy of PJ Hyett's post, as it is not available anymore:

Git Isn't Hard

Nov 23, 2008

When we tell people why they should use Git over Subversion, the go-to line is, “Git does Subversion better than Subversion, but it does a lot more than that.”

The “lot more” is comprised of a bunch of stuff that makes Git really shine, but it can be pretty overwhelming for those coming from other SCM’s like Subversion.

That said, there’s nothing stopping you from using Git just like you use Subversion while you’re making the transition.

Assuming you’ve installed the necessary software and have a remote repository somewhere, this is how you would grab the code and push your changes back with Subversion:

$ svn checkout svn://foo.googlecode.com/svn/trunk foo
# make your changes
$ svn commit -m "my first commit"

And how would you do it in Git:

$ git clone [e-mail]:pjhyett/foo.git
# make your changes
$ git commit -a -m "my first commit"
$ git push

One more command to make it happen in Git. That extra command has large implications, but for the purposes of this post, that’s all we’re talking about, one extra command.

See, it really isn’t that hard.

Update: I’d be remiss to not also mention that the equivalent of updating your local copy in Subversion compared to Git is svn update and git pull, respectively. Only one command in both cases.

Answer 6

How do you compare two revisions of a file, or your current file and a previous revision?

Compare command is git diff.

To compare 2 revisions of a file:

$ git diff <commit1> <commit2> <file_name>

That diffs commit1 against commit2; if you change order then files are diffed the other way round, which may not be what you expect...

To compare current staged file against the repository:

$ git diff --staged <file_name>

To compare current unstaged file against the repository:

$ git diff <file_name>