Git Basics: What I Wish I Knew Day One!

Posted on March 1, 2024 by -intern
Tags: Git, Version Control, Learning, Tutorials

hey everyone!!! 👋 omg so i just finished my first month as an intern and let me tell you about my journey with git... it's been a WILD ride! 🎢

day 1: "git push origin main" seemed fine until jacob was like "WHO PUSHED TO MAIN???" 😱 apparently that's not something we do... oops!

the basics (what i learned the hard way 😅)

        # first things first - NEVER work directly on main!
        git checkout -b my-awesome-feature # create a new branch

# save your changes
git add . # stage all changes
git commit -m "did stuff!" # save changes with a message

# get latest changes from main
git checkout main
git pull
git checkout my-awesome-feature
git merge main # update your branch

fun fact: git was created by linus torvalds (the linux guy!) because he got annoyed with other version control systems. same energy as me making a discord bot because i got tired of manually checking PR status 😆

things that confused me at first 🤔

what's the difference between merge and rebase?
why do we need staging (git add)?
what's a "detached HEAD"? (sounds scary tbh)
why does everyone keep talking about forks? 🍴

my git cheat sheet! 📝

        # oops i committed to the wrong branch!
        git reset HEAD~1 # undo last commit but keep changes
        git stash # save changes for later
        git checkout correct-branch
        git stash pop # get changes back

# help i broke something!
git status # see what's going on
git log # check commit history
git reset --hard HEAD # nuclear option (BE CAREFUL!)

# keeping your branch updated
git fetch # get latest info
git rebase origin/main # put your changes on top of main

protip from jacob: "Always write clear commit messages. Future you will thank past you." (he was right... past me was terrible at this 😅)

branching strategy that actually makes sense! 🌳

main branch = production code (DON'T TOUCH!)
feature branches = where we actually work
naming convention: feature/what-im-doing
delete branches after they're merged

that time i tried to force push to main because "git push" wasn't working... jacob had enabled branch protection like 5 minutes before 😅 saved by the bell!

git commands i use every day now ⭐

        # checking stuff
        git status # what's changed?
        git diff # what exactly changed?
        git log --oneline # commit history but pretty

# branching
git checkout -b feature/awesome-thing
git branch -d old-branch # cleanup!

# fixing mistakes
git commit --amend # fix last commit
git reset --soft HEAD~1 # undo commit but keep changes
git clean -fd # remove untracked files (careful!)

visual tools that saved my life 🙏

VS Code Git integration (omg the colored lines are so helpful!)
GitKraken (the graph view finally made branching click for me)
GitHub Desktop (when i just can't with the command line)

when i first started, i thought git and github were the same thing... jacob had to explain that github is like instagram for code, and git is like... the camera? idk the metaphor got weird 😂