Revisions and The Cloud
Whether you are new to the “developer world” or a seasoned veteran, you have undoubtedly heard about Git and the technology behind it. In this short blog, we will discuss what Git is along with a few of its concepts.
What Is Git?
So, what is Git? Git is simply a version control system for files. The term Version Control refers to a technology that tracks changes in a file, or set of files, and allows authorized users to revisit and view all changes to those files; thus, allowing those users to view progression or revert any mistakes.
The technology was created in 2005 by Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, along with a few other members in the Linux development community, to address code versioning issues at the time.^[1] The problem they sought to solve was how to enable large-scale collaboration in development efforts, which Git successfully addressed.
Key Concepts
Version Control is a technology that makes it possible for users and teams to track a file or sets of files by recording changes to those files (versions). Version Control makes it possible to:
- Revert to a known better state for code.
- View who has made changes and what those changes are.
- Quickly patch bugs found in code.
Cloning in Git quite literally refers to the cloning of a Git repository (a set of files) stored in a particular server or on a host of servers (cloud).
To track and stage a file(s) in Git, you would use the following two commands (first one is to track a single file, the second is to track all files in the current repository):
git add ${filename}
git add *
To take a snapshot of your changed files, you would use the following command:
git commit -a
To send your files to GitHub, you would use the following command:
git push origin master
Conclusion
Git is a must have tool for any serious / professional developer. It is also very beginner friendly. Now let’s go Git’in!
Reference
[1] What is the Git version control system? – TechTarget Definition