Git fundamentals#

Git is a distributed version control system (Version Control System, VCS) that is widely used and released under GNU GPL v2 license. It can:

  • track changes in files;

  • store multiple versions of the same file;

  • cancel changes made;

  • record who made changes and when.

Git stores changes as a snapshot of entire repository. This snapshot is created after each “commit” command.

Git installation:

$ sudo apt-get install git

Git initial setup#

To start working with Git you need to specify user name and e-mail that will be used to synchronize local repository with Github repository:

$ git config --global user.name "username"
$ git config --global user.email "username.user@example.com"

See Git settings:

$ git config --list

Repository initialization#

Repository is initialized using “git init” command:

[~/tools/first_repo]
$ git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/vagrant/tools/first_repo/.git/

After executing this command, current directory creates .git folder containing service files needed for Git.