Version Control- Git

In this tutorial, you will learn to install, configure, and use Git on Linux.

Part 1 – Launch terminal

In this part you will launch the Linux terminal.

1. Open the Terminal window.

Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+Alt+T to access the terminal.

Part 2 – Install Git

1. Update APT repository

sudo apt-get update

Enter  password, if prompted

2. Install git.

sudo apt-get install git

Press Y, if prompted

3. In the terminal run following command to find git version number.

git –version
git help
git help -a

Part 3 – Using Git

In this part you will use Git to perform various operations, such as, check in, check status etc.

1. Switch to the “Documents” directory.

cd ~/Documents

2. Create a directory.

mkdir -p workspace/git

3. Switch to the “git” directory.

cd workspace/git

4. Initialize repository.

git init

5. Tell Git who you are.

git config --global user.name "Alice Smith"
git config --global user.email alice@smith.com

Note: One interesting aspect of Git is that it separates user identity in the repository from any sort of authentication or authorization. Because a distributed repository will generally be maintained by many separate individuals or systems, the identity of the committer must be contained in the repository – it can’t just be supplied as a user id when we do the commit. So, even if we’re not connected to any central repository, we need to tell Git who we are. The identity that we supply will be recorded whenever we commit to a repository.

6. Create a text file.

nano sample.txt

7. Enter following text.

First Version!

8. Press Ctrl+O to save the file and hit enter.

9. Press Ctrl+X to exit to the terminal.

10. Get Git status.

git status

Notice sample.txt is listed under untracked files.

11. Add the files to tracked.

git add .

Note: Here you are adding the current directory. You could also add the file using “git sample.txt”.

12. Get Git status again.

git status

Notice sample.txt is tracked.

13. Commit changes.

git commit

Notice it launched text editor automatically which lists operations that will get performed when files are committed. Here you can add detailed description that will get saved when you commit the changes.

14. Add following text in the first line.

Added sample.txt

15. Press Ctrl+O to save the file and hit enter.

16. Press Ctrl+X to exit to the terminal.

17. Get Git status.

git status

Notice it says there’s nothing to commit since you have already committed all changes.

18. Modify sample.txt.

nano sample.txt

19. Change “First Version!” to “Second Version!”

20. Press Ctrl+O to save the file and hit enter.

21. Press Ctrl+X to exit to the terminal.

22. Get Git status.

git status

Notice it says the file is modified.

23. View changes.

git diff

Notice it shows old text in red and new text in green.

24. Create another file.

nano another.txt

25. Add the following text.

Hello World!

26. Press Ctrl+O to save the file and hit enter.

27. Press Ctrl+X to exit to the terminal.

28. Add all files.

git add .

29. Get Git status.

git status

Notice it’s showing 1 file as modified and 1 file as a newly added file.

30. Commit changes.

git commit -m "Made 2 changes"

Notice when you pass -m switch, you can store a simple single line comment.

31. Get Git status.

git status

Notice there’s nothing to commit.

32. Delete sample.txt

rm sample.txt

33. Recover file.

git checkout sample.txt

34. View sample.txt

cat sample.txt

Note: It restored latest version by default.

35. Delete file again.

rm sample.txt

36. View all versions of a file.

git log

Notice it shows user, commit id, date time, and comment.

37. Copy the commit id for the older version.

38. View changes between current and the first version.

git diff <commit_id>

39. Restore the older version.

git checkout <commit_id> sample.txt

40. View file content.

cat sample.txt

Notice it’s the first version.

41. Close the terminal.

Part 4 – Review

In this tutorial,  you installed and used Git.