ctx->guides->git

Simple git guide for CVS users

0x0. Set up your user name + email.

$ git config --global user.name "you"
$ git config --global user.email "you@yourserver.org"
$ git config --global push.default simple

This will create ~/.gitconfig.

0x1. Centralized workflow - basic notions

Git avoids touching the network as much as possible. The few basic commands that require network access are as shown below.

* git-clone(1) # clone a repo for the first time
* git-push(1)  # push your branch
* git-pull(1)  # fetch compressed deltas and merge into current branch

In git you can have tracked and untracked files. In git you have 3 types of changes. If you modify a tracked file you have modified the file. When you do git-add(1) you stage the file. Finally with git-commit(1) you commit your change into your local branch.

Staging is important if you have modified one or many files and you want to select a subset of those changes to commit. This makes it easy to break down your patches and organize them as needed. Ideally each patch is useful on its own and unrelated changes are grouped in separate patches. For more information look at the -p flag for git-add(1).

For more advanced operations you should always know what state git is in. You can query that with git-status(1). If you are in the middle of a merge and you forgot about it, git-status(1) will remind you. Use git-status(1) frequently.

0x2. Centralized git workflow

To clone a repo:

$ git clone you@yourserver.org:myrepo.git

To update your repo:

$ git pull

If you have local changes  the fetch/merge will proceed as expected.
You can  retain your local changes  even if they are  not committed.
If you have a merge conflict,  resolve it by hand and use git-add(1)
and git-commit(1).  The  history will continue to be  linear in case
of a fast-forward merge.

To look at the commit history and the contents of each patch:

$ git log -p

To commit your changes:

$ git commit -am 'Initial import'

This will  add all modified/deleted  files and commit  them locally.
New files are not added.

To add new files/directories:

$ git add <file|dir>
$ git commit -m 'awesome'

To push your changes to the remote branch:

$ git push

To push a specific branch:

$ git push origin mybranch

To show a diff between your modified files and the HEAD commit in your branch:

$ git diff

To show the staged changes (the changes to be committed upon git-commit(1)):

$ git diff --cached

To unstage changes:

$ git reset <file|dir>

To remove a tracked file/dir:

$ git rm -r <file|dir>

This will also stage the change.  You can just git-commit(1) at this point.

To rename a tracked file/dir:

$ git mv <src> <dst>

This will also stage the change.  You can just git-commit(1) at this point.

To revert a modified file/dir to whatever is in HEAD:

$ git checkout <file|dir>

To change the contents of your last commit:

$ # change files
$ git add <files>
$ git commit --amend

To generate git patch files:

$ git format-patch -1

This will generate the patch file for the last commit.  You
can use git format-patch -<n> for the last *n* commits.

To apply a git patch file:

$ git am mypatch.patch

For a simple workflow you can avoid using the staging area completely. Just use the -am option for git-commit(1) so you can stage and commit everything in one step.

0x3. Set up a server-side bare repo for your project

To create a new repo in your home directory:

$ cd
$ cp -r /tmp/myproject myrepo
$ cd myrepo
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/you/myrepo/.git/
$ git add *
$ git commit -m 'Initial import'
$ cd
$ # We do not need an unpacked repo, just a bare one
$ # no need to waste disk space
$ git clone --bare myrepo myrepo.git
$ rm -rf myrepo

Assuming your ssh-keys are in place, you can now clone myrepo.git just by doing:

$ git clone you@yourserver.org:myrepo.git

bye!

sin@