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“Git-ing” Started: An Intro To Git
Know the what, the why, and the how
Let’s talk about Git. This is the first post in a series of using Git. In this post, I’m going to explain these things:
- What is Git?
- Why you should be using it
- How to use it.
What Is Git?
Git is “distributed version control,” meaning it keeps track of changes made to files and there is a remote server somewhere else in the world that also has those changes. A common remote server is GitHub, which I will talk about in the next article.
Basically, it’s like track changes in Word but for files in a repository, or folder, that are stored locally and can be pushed to a remote server if needed. These files can be any type, but it works best with text files.
It’s usually used by developers to track all the changes made in source code and to collaborate on projects — since it supports working on different parts of the project and merge them together. Since each computer also gets the full history of the repository, or project, the developers can also go back to another point in time and adjust things there.
Those advantages also stand for being a solo dev, so let’s talk about why you should use it.
Why you should use it?
If you’re not on a team, I still say you should be using Git, and here are my reasons:
- Allows you to see what changes are made
- Allows you to easily roll back changes if needed
- Allows you to have a backup of your developer environment if using a remote server like GitHub
How Does One Use Git?
We’ve talked about why and what is Git, but how do you actually use Git? Like, what software do you need, and what do you do?
First off, Download and Install Git
from git-scm.com
That’s the only “extra” piece of software you need since git can be run through the command line
Workflow
- Initialize Git to the repository or project folder — I’ll…
