I gave this presentation at the Israeli ALM User Group. This is part 1 of a 2 part series on Git and Git workflows and introduces the most basic Git functionality, especially as it differs from the Subversion and TFS version control systems.

1. Getting Started with Git
a primer for svn and tfs users
Noam Kfir | Sela Group | 2014

2. Agenda
 VCS Overview
 Git in a Nutshell
 Q&A

3. Version Control Systems (VCS)
•Backup code and other resources
• Restore previous states Reversibility
•Share with the team
•Make available to automated processes Concurrency
•Comments, tags and other metadata
•Communication Annotation

4. Approaches to Version Control
Centralized
One Authority
Connected
File System*
Distributed
Arbitrary Authority
Disconnected
Database

5. Basic Product Comparison
TFS
Workspace
Changesets
One stage:
check in
SVN
Working Copy
Changesets
One stage:
commit
Git
Full Repository
Snapshots
Two stages:
commit + push

6. Commits Are Local
 Modify only the local repository index
 Do not modify the remote repository
 Every commit:
 Creates a snapshot
 Creates a new revision
 Receives a new unique SHA-1 ref identifier
 Supports completely disconnected workflows

7. More Advantages of Local Commits
 Can accumulate multiple commits before integrating
 Easier to group related commits
 History can be cleaned up before pushing changes
 More control over local environment

8. Snapshots over Deltas
Faster
operations
Complex
merges
Rewriting
history
Advanced
workflows

9. Installing Git on Windows
 http://git-scm.com
 Chocolatey: cinst git
 TortoiseGit
 GitExtensions
 Visual Studio Team Explorer
 And many more…

10. Configuration
 Configuration Cascade
 local  per repository
 global  per user
 system  per machine
 Most common configurations are global
 Some basic settings
 user.name
 user.email
 core.autocrlf

11. Excluding Files and Folders
 Avoid storing user-specific and temporary files in the remote repository,
by using the .gitignore file
 The .gitignore file supports wildcards
 Ignored files do not appear in the git status command output

12. Getting Started
 git init repository-name Create a new repository
 git remote add name url Link the local repository to a remote repository
 git clone repository-url Copy and link an existing remote repository

13. Bare Repositories
 No working folder
 Contents nearly identical to non-bare .git folder
 By convention, .git extension appended to bare repository name
 Created with git init --bare or git clone repository --bare
 Central repositories are almost always bare
 Local repositories are almost never bare

14. Branches
 A branch in Git points to a commit
 It is not a container or a folder that stores files
 git checkout [-b] branch Switch to the specified branch [after creating it]
 git branch List and manage branches

15. Revision Selection and refs
 Git uses special files to store information about its history
 Every commit has a SHA-1 identifier – called the ref
 You can refer to any commit, including remote commits, using the ref or a shorter ref
 The revision selection syntax is very flexible. A few examples:
 HEAD~1
 HEAD^^
 master..branch
 a1b2c3d

16. The Stage
 Files ready to be committed are “on the stage”
 Supports precise atomic commits – files and individual changes
 git add files Stage files and/or changes to be committed
 git status See an overview of the local changes
 git commit -m message Create a commit with the staged changes
 Some commands use the --cached parameter to refer to the stage

17. Working with Remote Repositories
 git pull repository Fetch and merge
 git fetch repository Fetch the latest version from the remote repository
 git merge source-branch Merge the changes from the specified branch
 git push repository Send the local commits to the remote repository

18. The Edit/Stage/Commit Sequence
 git pull
 (modify files)
 git add file_or_folder
 git status
 git commit –m "Modified something or other”
 git push

19. Merge Without Fear
 Merging is central to git
 Different types of merge strategies
 Usually selected automatically
 Can be specified manually
 pull = fetch + merge

20. Merge vs. Rebase
git merge
Copy
Adds to history
Usually safe
Good for traceability
Leaves messy history
git rebase
Move
Rewrites history
Can be dangerous
Good for cleanup
Makes history more linear

21. Rich Featureset
Stash Log Branches refspec
Merge
Algorithms
Aliases grep
Tags Hooks .gitignore cherry-pick reflog reset revert
Patches Remotes
diff and
difftool
Hosting
Tracking
Branches
Bare
Repositories
Conflict
Resolution
SSH Line Endings bisect GC Submodules Forks …

22. Summary
 Git is a very rich distributed version control system
 Its distributed snapshot nature makes it extremely flexible and suitable
for many different types of work environments
 From individual programmers to small co-located teams to massive distributed teams
 From open source projects to corporations
 Git supported most of the workflows supported by TFS and SVN,
but also offers additional benefits

23. Thank You!