Version Control with Git

Book Layout and Omissions

This book is organized as a progressive series of topics, each designed to build upon concepts introduced earlier. The first 10 chapters focus on concepts and operations that pertain to one repository. They form the foundation for more complex operations on multiple repositories covered in the final six chapters.

If you already have Git installed or have even used it briefly, you may not need the introductory and installation information in the first two chapters, nor even the quick tour presented in the third chapter.

The concepts covered in Chapter 4 are essential for a firm grasp on Git’s object model. They set the stage and prepare the reader for a clearer understanding of many of Git’s more complex operations.

Chapters 5 through 10 cover various topics in more detail. Chapter 5 describes the index and file management. Chapters 6 and 10 discuss the fundamentals of making commits and working with them to form a solid line of development. Chapter 7 introduces branches so that you may manipulate several different lines of development from your one local repository. Chapter 8 explains how Git derives and presents “diffs.”

Git provides a rich and powerful ability to join different branches of development. The basics of branch merging and resolving merge conflicts is covered in Chapter 9. A key insight into Git’s model is the realization that all merging performed by Git happens in your local repository in the context of your current working directory.

The fundamentals of naming and exchanging data with another, remote repository are covered in Chapter 11. Once the basics of merging have been mastered, interacting with multiple repositories is shown to be a simple combination of an exchange step plus a merge step. The exchange step is the new concept covered in this chapter; the merge step is covered in Chapter 9.

Chapter 12 provides a more philosophical and abstract coverage of repository management “in the large.” It also establishes a context for Chapter 13 to cover patch handling when direct exchange of repository information isn’t possible using Git’s native transfer protocols.

The remaining three chapters cover advanced topics: the use of hooks, combining projects and multiple repositories into a superproject, and interacting with Subversion repositories.

Git is still evolving rapidly because there is an active developer base. It is not that Git isn’t mature enough to be used for development; rather, ongoing refinements and user interface issues are being enhanced regularly. Even as this book was being written, Git evolved. Apologies if I was unable to keep up accurately.

I do not give the command gitk the complete coverage that it deserves. If you like graphical representations of the history within a repository, you should explore gitk. Other history visualization tools exist as well, but they are not covered here either. Nor am I able to cover a rapidly evolving and growing host of other Git-related tools. I’m not even able to cover all of Git’s own core commands and options thoroughly in this book. Again, my apologies.

Perhaps, though, enough pointers, tips, and direction can be found here to inspire readers to do some of their own research and exploration!