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gittutorial(7) Manual Page

NAME
gittutorial - A tutorial introduction to git (for version 1.5.1 or newer)

SYNOPSIS
git *

DESCRIPTION
This tutorial explains how to import a new project into git, make changes to it, and share changes with other developers. If you are instead primarily interested in using git to fetch a project, for example, to test the latest version, you may prefer to start with the first two chapters of The Git User s Manual. First, note that you can get documentation for a command such as g t l g - g a hwith: i o -rp
$mngtlg a i-o

or:
$gthl lg i ep o

With the latter, you can use the manual viewer of your choice; see git-help(1) for more information. It is a good idea to introduce yourself to git with your name and public email address before doing any operation. The easiest way to do so is:
$gtcni -goa ue.ae"orNm CmsHr" i ofg -lbl srnm Yu ae oe ee $gtcni -goa ue.mi yuyudmi.xml.o i ofg -lbl sreal o@oroaneapecm

Importing a ne
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Assume you have a tarball project.tar.gz with your initial work. You can place it under git revision control as follows.
$trxfpoettrg a z rjc.a.z $c poet d rjc $gtii i nt

Git will reply

IiilzdepyGtrpstr i .i/ ntaie mt i eoioy n gt

You ve now initialized the working directoryyou may notice a new directory created, named ".git". Next, tell git to take a snapshot of the contents of all files under the current directory (note the .), with gi add:
$gtad. i d

This snapshot is now stored in a temporary staging area which git calls the "index". You can permanently store the contents of the index in the repository with gi commi :
$gtcmi i omt

This will prompt you for a commit message. You ve now stored the first version of your project in git.

Making changes
Modify some files, then add their updated contents to the index:
$gtadfl1fl2fl3 i d ie ie ie

You are now ready to commit. You can see what is about to be committed using gi diff with the --cached option:
$gtdf -cce i if -ahd

(Without --cached, gi diff will show you any changes that you ve made but not yet added to the index.) You can also get a brief summary of the situation with gi a :

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$gtsau i tts #O bac mse n rnh atr #Cagst b cmitd hne o e omte: # (s "i rstHA <ie.. t usae ue gt ee ED fl>." o ntg) # # mdfe: fl1 oiid ie # mdfe: fl2 oiid ie # mdfe: fl3 oiid ie #

If you need to make any further adjustments, do so now, and then add any newly modified content to the index. Finally, commit your changes with:
$gtcmi i omt

This will again prompt you for a message describing the change, and then record a new version of the project. Alternatively, instead of running gi add beforehand, you can use
$gtcmi i omt a

which will automatically notice any modified (but not new) files, add them to the index, and commit, all in one step. A note on commit messages: Though not required, it s a good idea to begin the commit message with a single short (less than 50 character) line summarizing the change, followed by a blank line and then a more thorough description. Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use the first line on the Subject: line and the rest of the commit in the body.

Git tracks content not files

Many revision control systems provide an a dcommand that tells the system to start tracking d changes to a new file. Git s a dcommand does something simpler and more powerful: gi add d is used both for new and newly modified files, and in both cases it takes a snapshot of the given files and stages that content in the index, ready for inclusion in the next commit.

Vie ing project histor

At any point you can view the history of your changes using
$gtlg i o

If you also want to see complete diffs at each step, use

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$gtlgi o p

Often the overview of the change is useful to get a feel of each step
$gtlg-sa -smay i o -tt -umr

Managing branches
A single git repository can maintain multiple branches of development. To create a new branch named "experimental", use
$gtbac eprmna i rnh xeietl

If you now run

$gtbac i rnh

you ll get a list of all existing branches:

eprmna xeietl *mse atr

The "experimental" branch is the one you just created, and the "master" branch is a default branch that was created for you automatically. The asterisk marks the branch you are currently on; type
$gtceku eprmna i hcot xeietl

to switch to the experimental branch. Now edit a file, commit the change, and switch back to the master branch:
(dtfl) ei ie $gtcmi i omt a $gtceku mse i hcot atr

Check that the change you made is no longer visible, since it was made on the experimental branch and you re back on the master branch. You can make a different change on the master branch:
(dtfl) ei ie
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$gtcmi i omt a

at this point the two branches have diverged, with different changes made in each. To merge the changes made in experimental into master, run
$gtmreeprmna i eg xeietl

If the changes don t conflict, you re done. If there are conflicts, markers will be left in the problematic files showing the conflict;
$gtdf i if

will show this. Once you ve edited the files to resolve the conflicts,
$gtcmi i omt a

will commit the result of the merge. Finally,

$gt ik

will show a nice graphical representation of the resulting history. At this point you could delete the experimental branch with
$gtbac - eprmna i rnh d xeietl

This command ensures that the changes in the experimental branch are already in the current branch. If you develop on a branch crazy-idea, then regret it, you can always delete the branch with
$gtbac - cayie i rnh D rz-da

Branches are cheap and easy, so this is a good way to try something out.

Using git for collaboration

Suppose that Alice has started a new project with a git repository in /home/alice/project, and that Bob, who has a home directory on the same machine, wants to contribute. Bob begins with:
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bb gtcoe/oeaiepoetmrp o$ i ln hm/lc/rjc yeo

This creates a new directory "myrepo" containing a clone of Alice s repository. The clone is on an equal footing with the original project, possessing its own copy of the original project s history. Bob then makes some changes and commits them:
(dtfls ei ie) bb gtcmi o$ i omt a (eeta ncsay rpa s eesr)

When he s ready, he tells Alice to pull changes from the repository at /home/bob/myrepo. She does this with:
aie c /oeaiepoet lc$ d hm/lc/rjc aie gtpl /oebbmrp mse lc$ i ul hm/o/yeo atr

This merges the changes from Bob s "master" branch into Alice s current branch. If Alice has made her own changes in the meantime, then she may need to manually fix any conflicts. The "pull" command thus performs two operations: it fetches changes from a remote branch, then merges them into the current branch. Note that in general, Alice would want her local changes committed before initiating this "pull". If Bob s work conflicts with what Alice did since their histories forked, Alice will use her working tree and the index to resolve conflicts, and existing local changes will interfere with the conflict resolution process (git will still perform the fetch but will refuse to merge --- Alice will have to get rid of her local changes in some way and pull again when this happens). Alice can peek at what Bob did without merging first, using the "fetch" command; this allows Alice to inspect what Bob did, using a special symbol "FETCH_HEAD", in order to determine if he has anything worth pulling, like this:
aie gtfth/oebbmrp mse lc$ i ec hm/o/yeo atr aie gtlg- HA.FTHHA lc$ i o p ED.EC_ED

This operation is safe even if Alice has uncommitted local changes. The range notation "HEAD..FETCH_HEAD" means "show everything that is reachable from the FETCH_HEAD but exclude anything that is reachable from HEAD". Alice already knows everything that leads to her current state (HEAD), and reviews what Bob has in his state (FETCH_HEAD) that she has not seen with this command. If Alice wants to visualize what Bob did since their histories forked she can issue the following command:
$gt HA.FTHHA ik ED.EC_ED

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This uses the same two-dot range notation we saw earlier with gi log. Alice may want to view what both of them did since they forked. She can use three-dot form instead of the two-dot form:
$gt HA..EC_ED ik ED.FTHHA

This means "show everything that is reachable from either one, but exclude anything that is reachable from both of them". Please note that these range notation can be used with both gitk and "git log". After inspecting what Bob did, if there is nothing urgent, Alice may decide to continue working without pulling from Bob. If Bob s history does have something Alice would immediately need, Alice may choose to stash her work-in-progress first, do a "pull", and then finally unstash her work-in-progress on top of the resulting history. When you are working in a small closely knit group, it is not unusual to interact with the same repository over and over again. By defining emo e repository shorthand, you can make it easier:
aie gtrmt adbb/oebbmrp lc$ i eoe d o hm/o/yeo

With this, Alice can perform the first part of the "pull" operation alone using the gi fe ch command without merging them with her own branch, using:
aie gtfthbb lc$ i ec o

Unlike the longhand form, when Alice fetches from Bob using a remote repository shorthand set up with gi emo e, what was fetched is stored in a remote-tracking branch, in this case b b m s e . So after this: o/atr
aie gtlg- mse.bbmse lc$ i o p atr.o/atr

shows a list of all the changes that Bob made since he branched from Alice s master branch. After examining those changes, Alice could merge the changes into her master branch:
aie gtmrebbmse lc$ i eg o/atr

This m r ecan also be done by p lling f om he o n emo e- acking b anch, like this: eg
aie gtpl .rmtsbbmse lc$ i ul eoe/o/atr

Note that git pull always merges into the current branch, regardless of what else is given on the
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command line. Later, Bob can update his repo with Alice s latest changes using
bb gtpl o$ i ul

Note that he doesn t need to give the path to Alice s repository; when Bob cloned Alice s repository, git stored the location of her repository in the repository configuration, and that location is used for pulls:
bb gtcni -gtrmt.rgnul o$ i ofg -e eoeoii.r /oeaiepoet hm/lc/rjc

(The complete configuration created by gi clone is visible using g t c n i - , and the giti ofg l config(1) man page explains the meaning of each option.) Git also keeps a pristine copy of Alice s master branch under the name "origin/master":
bb gtbac o$ i rnh r oii/atr rgnmse

If Bob later decides to work from a different host, he can still perform clones and pulls using the ssh protocol:
bb gtcoeaieog/oeaiepoetmrp o$ i ln lc.r:hm/lc/rjc yeo

Alternatively, git has a native protocol, or can use rsync or http; see git-pull(1) for details. Git can also be used in a CVS-like mode, with a central repository that various users push changes to; see git-push(1) and gitcvs-migration(7).

E ploring histor
Git history is represented as a series of interrelated commits. We have already seen that the gi log command can list those commits. Note that first line of each git log entry also gives a name for the commit:
$gtlg i o cmi c22c9b3566fcbf49e84c omt 8a23cc27f45632b9a197 Ato:JnoCHmn <ukocxnt uhr ui aao [email protected]> Dt: TeMy1 1:82 20 -70 ae u a 6 71:2 06 00 mrebs:Caiytecmet o ps poesn. eg-ae lrf h omns n ot rcsig

We can give this name to gi ho to see the details about this commit.
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$gtso c22c9b3566fcbf49e84c i hw 8a23cc27f45632b9a197

But there are other ways to refer to commits. You can use any initial part of the name that is long enough to uniquely identify the commit:
$gtso c22c9 i hw 8a23c #tefrtfwcaatr o tenm ae h is e hrces f h ae r #uulyeog sal nuh $gtso HA i hw ED #tetpo tecretbac h i f h urn rnh $gtso eprmna #tetpo te"xeietl bac i hw xeietl h i f h eprmna" rnh

Every commit usually has one "parent" commit which points to the previous state of the project:
$gtso HA^ #t seteprn o HA i hw ED o e h aet f ED $gtso HA^ #t setegadaeto HA i hw ED^ o e h rnprn f ED $gtso HA 4#t setegetgetgadaeto HA i hw ED o e h ra-ra rnprn f ED

Note that merge commits may have more than one parent:
$gtso HA^ #so tefrtprn o HA (aea HA^ i hw ED1 hw h is aet f ED sm s ED) $gtso HA^ #so tescn prn o HA i hw ED2 hw h eod aet f ED

You can also give commits names of your own; after running
$gttgv. 1216f i a 25 bed3f

you can refer to 1b2e1d63ff by the name "v2.5". If you intend to share this name with other people (for example, to identify a release version), you should create a "tag" object, and perhaps sign it; see git-tag(1) for details. Any git command that needs to know a commit can take any of these names. For example:
$gtdf v. HA i if 25 ED #cmaetecretHA t v. opr h urn ED o 25 $gtbac sal v. #satanwbac nmd"tbe bsd i rnh tbe 25 tr e rnh ae sal" ae #a v. t 25 $gtrst-hr HA^#rstyu cretbac adwrig i ee -ad ED ee or urn rnh n okn #drcoyt issaea HA^ ietr o t tt t ED

Be careful with that last command: in addition to losing any changes in the working directory, it will also remove all later commits from this branch. If this branch is the only branch containing those commits, they will be lost. Also, don t use gi e e on a publicly-visible branch that other developers pull from, as it will force needless merges on other developers to clean up the history. If you need to undo changes that you have pushed, use gi e e instead. The gi g ep command can search for strings in any version of your project, so

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$gtge "el"v. i rp hlo 25

searches for all occurrences of "hello" in v2.5. If you leave out the commit name, gi g ep will search any of the files it manages in your current directory. So
$gtge "el" i rp hlo

is a quick way to search just the files that are tracked by git. Many git commands also take sets of commits, which can be specified in a number of ways. Here are some examples with gi log:
$gtlgv..v. i o 25.26 #cmisbtenv. adv. omt ewe 25 n 26 $gtlgv.. i o 25. #cmissnev. omt ic 25 $gtlg-sne" wesao #cmisfo tels 2wes i o -ic=2 ek g" omt rm h at ek $gtlgv.. Mkfl i o 25. aeie #cmissnev. wihmdf omt ic 25 hc oiy #Mkfl aeie

You can also give gi log a "range" of commits where the first is not necessarily an ancestor of the second; for example, if the tips of the branches "stable" and "master" diverged from a common commit some time ago, then
$gtlgsal.mse i o tbe.atr

will list commits made in the master branch but not in the stable branch, while
$gtlgmse.sal i o atr.tbe

will show the list of commits made on the stable branch but not the master branch. The gi log command has a weakness: it must present commits in a list. When the history has lines of development that diverged and then merged back together, the order in which gi log presents those commits is meaningless. Most projects with multiple contributors (such as the Linux kernel, or git itself) have frequent merges, and gi k does a better job of visualizing their history. For example,
$gt -sne" wesao dies ik -ic=2 ek g" rvr/

allows you to browse any commits from the last 2 weeks of commits that modified files under the "drivers" directory. (Note: you can adjust gitk s fonts by holding down the control key while pressing "-" or "+".) Finally, most commands that take filenames will optionally allow you to precede any filename by
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a commit, to specify a particular version of the file:

$gtdf v.:aeieHA:aeiei i if 25Mkfl EDMkfl.n

You can also use gi ho to see any such file:

$gtso v.:aeie i hw 25Mkfl

Ne t Steps
This tutorial should be enough to perform basic distributed revision control for your projects. However, to fully understand the depth and power of git you need to understand two simple ideas on which it is based: The object database is the rather elegant system used to store the history of your project files, directories, and commits. The index file is a cache of the state of a directory tree, used to create commits, check out working directories, and hold the various trees involved in a merge. Part two of this tutorial explains the object database, the index file, and a few other odds and ends that you ll need to make the most of git. You can find it at gittutorial-2(7). If you don t want to continue with that right away, a few other digressions that may be interesting at this point are: git-format-patch(1), git-am(1): These convert series of git commits into emailed patches, and vice versa, useful for projects such as the Linux kernel which rely heavily on emailed patches. git-bisect(1): When there is a regression in your project, one way to track down the bug is by searching through the history to find the exact commit that s to blame. Git bisect can help you perform a binary search for that commit. It is smart enough to perform a closeto-optimal search even in the case of complex non-linear history with lots of merged branches. gitworkflows(7): Gives an overview of recommended workflows. Everyday GIT with 20 Commands Or So gitcvs-migration(7): Git for CVS users.

SEE ALSO
gittutorial-2(7), gitcvs-migration(7), gitcore-tutorial(7), gitglossary(7), git-help(1), gitworkflows(7), Everyday git, The Git User s Manual

GIT
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Part of the git(1) suite.

La

pda ed 2011-07-23 00:49:30 UTC

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