Git Basics

Introduction

This web site is an introduction to the Git version control system. After working through the content of this web site you should be able to use Git comfortably for your own projects.

There is much more that can be done with most of Git commands you encounter in this tutorial. The Git Reference Manual has all the details you need for any command. The Pro Git Book is also a great resource for gaining a deeper understanding of Git's features and functionality.

Assumptions

This tutorial is meant for complete beginners. The only assumption is that you are comfortable entering commands and file paths into a command line shell. See the Command Line Shell Basics tutorial if you need help with that.

Activities

Throughout this tutorial you will encounter Activity blocks such as this one which you should work through to get hands-on practice. Note that the activities are cumulative and assume that you have done the previous activities.

Part 1 — Just the Basics

In this part you will learn the basic concepts and usage of Git for keeping track of changes in a set of files

Part 2 - Branching and Merging

In this part you will learn how to track changes in multiple different ‘branches’ in a Git repository, and how to merge those changes.

Part 3 - Distributed VCS Basics

In this part you will learn how to synchronize changes in your set of files among any number of people working in collaboration, or across multiple devices and platforms such as GitHub or GitLab.