Git for Beginners

Explore the fundamentals of version control systems and Git, learn about local, centralized, and distributed models, and discover why Git was created and what requirements it fulfills.

See how a version control system tracks and saves code changes, replacing the copy-and-rename method. Learn why version control, or source control, helps identify the latest version and supports collaboration.

Discover the three types of version control: local, centralized, and distributed, and how Git uses a distributed repository with commits, clones, pushes, and pulls, via GitHub.com.

Trace the origin of Git from the Linux kernel history, the shift from patches and BitKeeper to a fast, free, open source distributed version control that supports non-linear development.

Learn how a version control system tracks changes and manages versioning, focusing on distributed Git, repositories on every computer, and Git’s origin in 2005.

Install and configure Git on your computer to enable commits by setting your user name and email, which Git stores with every commit to a repository.

Install Git on your machine from git-scm.com using the Windows installer, set the initial branch to main, and learn common commands like clone and init.

Configure your git user name and email globally with git config --global. Verify with git config -l and --show-origin, and review the .gitconfig file, including the default branch main.

Install git from git-scm.com and configure your user name and email with --global, stored in .gitconfig for every commit. Learn to work with local repositories in the next lesson.

Learn to create a local Git repository for your project, commit changes, and manage the repository, working directory, and staging area; explore the first commit, history, and ignoring files.

Create a local git repository from the command line by making a project folder, running git init, and inspecting hidden .git folder to understand its role before the first commit.

Identify the three main areas of Git: the repository, the staging area, and the working directory—and learn how staging controls what goes into the next commit.

Learn to create your first commit with git, initialize a repository, stage files with git add in the staging area, and commit with a present tense message.

Learn how git tracks changes by making a second commit, staging updates from readme.txt, and using diff to review changes while exploring editors and commit messaging.

Discover how Git treats commits as snapshots of all your files, how each commit updates the main branch, and how a 40-character hash lets you check out any past state.

Explore the history of your code with git log and oneline, inspect commits by hash, and learn how to switch between commits and branches, including detached head state.

Learn to create a .gitignore file to ignore compiled output, generated files, and external dependencies like maven, NuGet, and node modules in the root folder and its subdirectories.

Learn to create a local repository with git init; understand the .git folder and the repository, working directory, and staging area, then commit, view history, and use .gitignore.

Learn to create a branch in your repository to work isolated on a feature. Implement the feature in that branch, merge it into the main branch, and handle merge conflicts.

Create a feature branch named feature/AddTwitterHandle from main, switch to it, update readme.txt with the twitter handle, then stage with git add and commit, preparing to merge back into main.

Merge a feature/AddTwitterHandle branch into the main branch using git merge, switch branches, and verify the updated history with git log and git status.

Learn to manage merge conflicts with git by creating feature branches, merging into main, resolving conflicts in readme.txt, and recording the results with merge commits and branch cleanup.

Create and work on a feature in a branch, merge it back to the main branch, and resolve merge conflicts to develop in isolation within your local repository.

Push a branch from your local repository to a remote GitHub repository, and learn to create, clone, push, and pull changes, including how fetch and merge happen behind the scenes.

Learn how to create a GitHub repository, set its name and visibility, optionally add a readme, gitignore, or license, and push a local project to the remote repository.

Push your local git project to a remote repository on GitHub, set up origin main with the -u upstream flag, and verify commits, status, and remote tracking for future pushes.

Learn how to clone a remote repository into a local directory using git clone, including cloning into the current directory with a dot, staging changes, committing, and pushing to origin.

Pull changes from the remote repository into your local branch with git pull, using origin and main when needed, and observe the updated readme via logs.

Learn how to use git fetch and git merge to update your local repo from a remote origin, and see how git pull performs fetch plus merge.

Create and work with a remote repository on GitHub, push and pull changes, clone from the remote to your local space; learn git pull, fetch, merge, and pull requests.

Learn how to use pull requests to merge feature branches into the main branch, create and merge pull requests on GitHub, and fork repositories to contribute elsewhere.

Explore pull requests in git and GitHub, learn how to create a feature branch, request review, and merge changes into the main branch via git pull.

Create and merge a pull request by creating a feature branch, pushing to remote, and using GitHub to merge into main, then delete the feature branch.

Learn to fork a GitHub repository, edit files in your fork, push changes, and open a pull request to propose updates to the original project.

Merge the pull request from Julia using both the GitHub web interface and the command line, creating a julia-main branch, pulling Julia's changes, and merging into the main branch.

Learn how pull requests merge a branch into the main branch of a repository, and how to create, merge, and fork on GitHub to collaborate.

Explore next steps after learning Git by using both the command line and GUI clients, and visit git-scm.com to try GUI tools for branch history.