Working with a version control system

The Magento code base is very extensive and is comprised of over 7,000 files and close to a million and a half lines of code. For this reason, working with a version control system is not only good practice, but also a necessity.

Version control systems are used to keep track of changes across multiple files and by multiple developers. Using a version control system, we gain access to very powerful tools.

Of the several version control systems available (git, svn, mercurial), Git deserves special attention due to its simplicity and flexibility. By releasing the upcoming version 2 of Magento on GitHub, a Git hosting service, the Magento core development team has recognized the importance that Git has among the Magento community.

For more information on Magento2, refer to https://github.com/magento/magento2.

GitHub now specifically includes a .gitignore file for Magento, which will ignore all the files in the Magento core and only keep track of our own code...