Git is increasingly becoming the de facto standard for Source Control Management (SCM) in modern software development.
Originally developed by Linus Torvalds as an SCM system for the Linux kernel to replace the proprietary SCM BitKeeper, Git has since conquered most of the open source world and is also used by lots of organizations for their private/proprietary projects.
This book is designed to give you practical recipes for everyday Git usage. The recipes can be used directly or as inspiration. The book will cover the Git data model through practical recipes and in-depth explanations so you get a deeper understanding of the internal workings of Git. This book will show you the following topics:
- Working with the history. With Git, all the history is stored locally. You cansearch through the history, view the history, find the last commit on a certain branch, and more.
- Using branches effectively with options and strategies to push, pull, and merge them.
- Storing and extracting additional metadata in the Git repository.
- Disaster recovery: local and global.
Git Version Control Cookbookgives you precise, step-by-step instructions for various common and uncommon Git operations. The book will make your daily work with Git easier by providingrecipes for common issues, useful tips and tricks, and in-depth clarifications of why andhow they work.
This book targets developers, professional build/release managers, and DevOps practitioners who want a practical guide for the next level of Git. Starting with the Git data model and advancing through branching to metadata and hooks, all through an easy-to-read recipe structure, the transition from simple, everyday use cases to advanced repository handling is smooth. The book can be easily read and understood by readers from the target audience. You need basic knowledge of common GNU/Linux tools and Shell/Bash scripting to get the most from this book.
Chapter 1,Navigating Git, shows how Git stores files and commits. Examples will visually showyou the data model and how to navigate the history and database with simple commands.
Chapter 2,Configuration, shows how a lot can be configured in Git, how configuration targets are set, the different configuration levels, and some useful targets.
Chapter 3,Branching, Merging, and Options, will give you a deeper understanding of branching and the options for easy push/pull targets. It also shows you the different merge strategies and some tips on how to record merge resolutions.
Chapter 4,Rebasing Regularly and Interactively, and Other Use Cases, shows you how rebasing can be used instead of merging, along with a lot of other use cases of rebasing, such as cleaning up the history before publishing, and testing single commits.
Chapter 5,Storing Additional Information in Your Repository, takes you on a tour of Git notes. It will show you how to tie additional information to a commit, and how to use and see this information again.
Chapter 6,Extracting Data from the Repository, shows you how to extract statistics and other metadata from the repository.
Chapter 7,Enhancing Your Daily Work with Git Hooks, Aliases, and Scripts, contains a collection of recipes that will help you automate much of the tedious daily work.
Chapter 8,Recovering from Mistakes, walks you through several recovery scenarios, from local undo, to where-is-my-old-commit, to global recovery scenarios.
Chapter 9,Repository Maintenance, is a collection of recipes that relate to the maintenance and management of repositories, from forcing garbage collection, over-splitting, and joining repositories, to completely rewriting history.
Chapter 10,Patching and Offline Sharing, shows you how to work offline with Git and sharethe work by means other than pushing and pulling.
Chapter 11,Tips and Tricks, is a collection of recipes that cover various topics, from simple tips to displaying the current branch in your prompt to advanced Git tools, such as bisect and stash.
Chapter 12, Git Providers, Integrations, and Clients, introduces the largest Git-hosting site, GitHub. Moreover, the chapter will discuss how to integrate Jenkins for automated builds and tests.
To follow and recreate the recipes from this book, you will need a computer preferably running a *nix operating system. You will need Git installed, preferably Git Version 2.x or later.
If you are a Windows user, we recommend the Git Extensions package, which ships both a graphical and textual (Bash) Git interface. The latter is required for the recipes in this book.
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/GitVersionControlCookbookSecondEdition_ColorImages.pdf.
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "The most recent commit is the 3061dc6 Adds Java version of 'hello world'commit."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
$ git checkout master && git reset --hard b14a939Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select System info from the Administration panel."
In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it..., How it works..., There's more..., and See also).
To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, use these sections as follows:
This section tells you what to expect in the recipe and describes how to set up any software or anypreliminary settings required for the recipe.
This section usually consists of a detailed explanation of what happened in the previous section.
This section consists of additional information about the recipe in order to make you more knowledgeable about the recipe.
Feedback from our readers is always welcome.
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