Learning Git. Need to know if I am on the right track

Question

Before I started using Git as my SCM, I would "throughly" test the code for stability then I'd just copy the working directory and rename it to something like (date)project_name. Then if I messed up somewhere and couldn't dig myself out I would just start from the last stable directory. Then I heard about Git.

I want to know if I'm using Git correctly so far. This is what I've been doing:

1. write some code...

2. git add . to add all the changed files to the stage

3. git status to check if those changed files are ready to be committed

4. git commit to commit the latest changes and write a commit message

5. repeat

So far this is all I've been doing. For simple backup purposes and for the ability to revert back to a "previous stability" is this enough knowledge of Git? If not, what else should I know?

Answer 1

As others have mentioned, I highly recommend getting comfortable with branches. My workflow is typically:

Starting form the master* branch:

• git checkout -b awesome-new-killer-feature create a new branch (-b) and have it checked out.

• write some code ...

• git add ., git status, git commit commit small changes, repeat step 2

OH no! My friend just reported a serious bug! He lost data!!!!!

• git checkout master go back to the master branch

• git checkout -b bugfix-serious-data-loss create new branch for hotfix

• fix bugs, git add, git status, git commit, rinse, repeat until bug is fixed

• git checkout master go back to master branch

• git merge --no-ff bugfix-serious-data-loss merge bug fix back onto master

OK, now I can get back to working on my awesome-new-killer-feature:

• git checkout awesome-new-killer-feature resume working on what I was working on

• git rebase master merge back changes to master onto working code so we get the benefit of the bugfix. Not to mention this reduces the probability of merge conflicts later on when we need to merge this branch back to master

• write code, git add, git status, git commit, rinse, repeat until feature is complete

• git checkout master, git merge --no-ff awesome-new-killer-feature merge the branch back onto master

Now sit back and type gitk to see a nice historical view of what you've been doing.

Optional:

• git branch -D bugfix-serious-data-loss awesome-new-killer-feature delete unused branches. I like to keep my repo clean

The power of git comes not from being able to checkpoint your work. It comes from how fast and cheap branching & merging is. Branching allows you to work on multiple ideas at the same time and/or experiment with throw-away ideas all without affecting your stable code. If the idea doesn't work simply delete the branch, if it works merge it back onto master.

*note: By convention most git users call their main/trunk branch "master".