Hands-on demo – Working with Git Locally

Hands-on demo – Working with Git Locally

Git is a distributed version control system that allows developers to track changes in code, collaborate, and manage projects efficiently. Working with Git locally means managing code changes, commits, branches, and repositories directly on your machine before pushing them to a remote repository (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket).

Key Concepts

1. Repository: A collection of your project files and the entire Git history.

2. Commit: A snapshot of the code at a particular point in time.

3. Branch: A separate line of development that diverges from the main project (e.g., main or master).

4. Staging Area: A place where changes are prepared before committing them.

Basic Git Workflow with Examples

1. Initialize a Git Repository

To start working with Git, you need to create a Git repository (also known as a repo).

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# Navigate to your project directory
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cd path/to/your/project
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# Initialize a new Git repository
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git init

This will create a .git folder in the project directory to manage version control.

2. Making Changes

After initializing the repository, you can make changes to files.

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# Create or edit a file
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echo "Hello, World!" > index.html

3. Tracking Changes

To track changes, use git status. This command shows which files are modified, staged, or untracked.

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git status

Example output:

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On branch main
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Changes to be committed:
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  (use "git reset HEAD <file>" to unstage)
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        modified:   index.html

4. Staging Changes

To stage changes for commit, use git add.

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git add index.html

5. Committing Changes

Once changes are staged, commit them using git commit.

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git commit -m "Added a simple HTML page"

6. Viewing Commit History

To view the commit history, use git log.

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git log

Example output:

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commit 1234567abcde
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Author: Your Name <your.email@example.com>
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Date:   Wed Dec 21 12:00:00 2024 +0000
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    Added a simple HTML page

7. Branching

To create a new branch, use git branch.

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git branch feature-branch

Switch to the new branch with:

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git checkout feature-branch

8. Merging Branches

After making changes in a branch, merge them back into the main branch.

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git checkout main
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git merge feature-branch

9. Pushing to Remote Repository

Once changes are locally committed, push them to a remote repository.

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git push origin main

This uploads changes to the remote repository.

Summary

Working with Git locally involves creating a repository, making changes, staging them, committing them, and managing branches. Once everything is ready, you push your changes to a remote repository for collaboration.