@ -391,6 +391,9 @@ with the commands mentioned in link:everyday.html[Everyday git]. You
@@ -391,6 +391,9 @@ with the commands mentioned in link:everyday.html[Everyday git]. You
should be able to find any unknown jargon in the
link:glossary.html[Glossary].
The link:user-manual.html[Git User's Manual] provides a more
comprehensive introduction to git.
The link:cvs-migration.html[CVS migration] document explains how to
import a CVS repository into git, and shows how to use git in a
@ -4,6 +4,10 @@ A tutorial introduction to git (for version 1.5.1 or newer)
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@ A tutorial introduction to git (for version 1.5.1 or newer)
This tutorial explains how to import a new project into git, make
changes to it, and share changes with other developers.
If you are instead primarily interested in using git to fetch a project,
for example, to test the latest version, you may prefer to start with
the first two chapters of link:user-manual.html[The Git User's Manual].
First, note that you can get documentation for a command such as "git
diff" with:
@ -40,42 +44,67 @@ Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
@@ -40,42 +44,67 @@ Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
------------------------------------------------
You've now initialized the working directory--you may notice a new
directory created, named ".git". Tell git that you want it to track
every file under the current directory (note the '.') with:
directory created, named ".git".
Next, tell git to take a snapshot of the contents of all files under the
current directory (note the '.'), with gitlink:git-add[1]:
------------------------------------------------
$ git add .
------------------------------------------------
Finally,
This snapshot is now stored in a temporary staging area which git calls
the "index". You can permanently store the contents of the index in the
repository with gitlink:git-commit[1]:
------------------------------------------------
$ git commit
------------------------------------------------
will prompt you for a commit message, then record the current state
of all the files to the repository.
This will prompt you for a commit message. You've now stored the first
version of your project in git.
Making changes
--------------
Try modifying some files, then run
Modify some files, then add their updated contents to the index:
------------------------------------------------
$ git diff
$ git add file1 file2 file3
------------------------------------------------
to review your changes. When you're done, tell git that you
want the updated contents of these files in the commit and then
make a commit, like this:
You are now ready to commit. You can see what is about to be committed
using gitlink:git-diff[1] with the --cached option:
------------------------------------------------
$ git diff --cached
------------------------------------------------
(Without --cached, gitlink:git-diff[1] will show you any changes that
you've made but not yet added to the index.) You can also get a brief
summary of the situation with gitlink:git-status[1]:
------------------------------------------------
$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
# (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
# modified: file1
# modified: file2
# modified: file3
#
------------------------------------------------
If you need to make any further adjustments, do so now, and then add any
newly modified content to the index. Finally, commit your changes with:
------------------------------------------------
$ git add file1 file2 file3
$ git commit
------------------------------------------------
This will again prompt your for a message describing the change, and then
record the new versions of the files you listed.
record a new version of the project.
Alternatively, instead of running `git add` beforehand, you can use
@ -83,7 +112,8 @@ Alternatively, instead of running `git add` beforehand, you can use
@@ -83,7 +112,8 @@ Alternatively, instead of running `git add` beforehand, you can use
$ git commit -a
------------------------------------------------
which will automatically notice modified (but not new) files.
which will automatically notice any modified (but not new) files, add
them to the index, and commit, all in one step.
A note on commit messages: Though not required, it's a good idea to
begin the commit message with a single short (less than 50 character)
@ -92,45 +122,15 @@ thorough description. Tools that turn commits into email, for
@@ -92,45 +122,15 @@ thorough description. Tools that turn commits into email, for
example, use the first line on the Subject: line and the rest of the
commit in the body.
Git tracks content not files
----------------------------
With git you have to explicitly "add" all the changed _content_ you
want to commit together. This can be done in a few different ways:
1) By using 'git add <file_spec>...'
This can be performed multiple times before a commit. Note that this
is not only for adding new files. Even modified files must be
added to the set of changes about to be committed. The "git status"
command gives you a summary of what is included so far for the
next commit. When done you should use the 'git commit' command to
make it real.
Note: don't forget to 'add' a file again if you modified it after the
first 'add' and before 'commit'. Otherwise only the previous added
state of that file will be committed. This is because git tracks
content, so what you're really 'adding' to the commit is the *content*
of the file in the state it is in when you 'add' it.
2) By using 'git commit -a' directly
This is a quick way to automatically 'add' the content from all files
that were modified since the previous commit, and perform the actual
commit without having to separately 'add' them beforehand. This will
not add content from new files i.e. files that were never added before.
Those files still have to be added explicitly before performing a
commit.
But here's a twist. If you do 'git commit <file1> <file2> ...' then only
the changes belonging to those explicitly specified files will be
committed, entirely bypassing the current "added" changes. Those "added"
changes will still remain available for a subsequent commit though.
However, for normal usage you only have to remember 'git add' + 'git commit'
and/or 'git commit -a'.
Many revision control systems provide an "add" command that tells the
system to start tracking changes to a new file. Git's "add" command
does something simpler and more powerful: `git add` is used both for new
and newly modified files, and in both cases it takes a snapshot of the
given files and stages that content in the index, ready for inclusion in
the next commit.
Viewing the changelog
---------------------
@ -564,7 +564,7 @@ link:tutorial-2.html[Part two of this tutorial] explains the object
@@ -564,7 +564,7 @@ link:tutorial-2.html[Part two of this tutorial] explains the object
database, the index file, and a few other odds and ends that you'll
need to make the most of git.
If you don't want to consider with that right away, a few other
If you don't want to continue with that right away, a few other
digressions that may be interesting at this point are:
* gitlink:git-format-patch[1], gitlink:git-am[1]: These convert
Figuring out why this works is left as an exercise to the (advanced)
student. The gitlink:git-log[1], gitlink:git-diff-tree[1], and
gitlink:git-hash-object[1] man pages may prove helpful.
[[Developing-with-git]]
Developing with git
===================
@ -1073,6 +1089,75 @@ description. Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use
@@ -1073,6 +1089,75 @@ description. Tools that turn commits into email, for example, use
the first line on the Subject line and the rest of the commit in the
body.
[[ignoring-files]]
Ignoring files
--------------
A project will often generate files that you do 'not' want to track with git.
This typically includes files generated by a build process or temporary
backup files made by your editor. Of course, 'not' tracking files with git
is just a matter of 'not' calling "`git add`" on them. But it quickly becomes
annoying to have these untracked files lying around; e.g. they make
"`git add .`" and "`git commit -a`" practically useless, and they keep
showing up in the output of "`git status`", etc.
Git therefore provides "exclude patterns" for telling git which files to
actively ignore. Exclude patterns are thoroughly explained in the
"Exclude Patterns" section of the gitlink:git-ls-files[1] manual page,
but the heart of the concept is simply a list of files which git should
ignore. Entries in the list may contain globs to specify multiple files,
or may be prefixed by "`!`" to explicitly include (un-ignore) a previously
excluded (ignored) file (i.e. later exclude patterns override earlier ones).
The following example should illustrate such patterns:
-------------------------------------------------
# Lines starting with '#' are considered comments.
# Ignore foo.txt.
foo.txt
# Ignore (generated) html files,
*.html
# except foo.html which is maintained by hand.
!foo.html
# Ignore objects and archives.
*.[oa]
-------------------------------------------------
The next question is where to put these exclude patterns so that git can
find them. Git looks for exclude patterns in the following files:
`.gitignore` files in your working tree:::
You may store multiple `.gitignore` files at various locations in your
working tree. Each `.gitignore` file is applied to the directory where
it's located, including its subdirectories. Furthermore, the
`.gitignore` files can be tracked like any other files in your working
tree; just do a "`git add .gitignore`" and commit. `.gitignore` is
therefore the right place to put exclude patterns that are meant to
be shared between all project participants, such as build output files
(e.g. `\*.o`), etc.
`.git/info/exclude` in your repo:::
Exclude patterns in this file are applied to the working tree as a
whole. Since the file is not located in your working tree, it does
not follow push/pull/clone like `.gitignore` can do. This is therefore
the place to put exclude patterns that are local to your copy of the
repo (i.e. 'not' shared between project participants), such as
temporary backup files made by your editor (e.g. `\*~`), etc.
The file specified by the `core.excludesfile` config directive:::
By setting the `core.excludesfile` config directive you can tell git
where to find more exclude patterns (see gitlink:git-config[1] for
more information on configuration options). This config directive
can be set in the per-repo `.git/config` file, in which case the
exclude patterns will apply to that repo only. Alternatively, you
can set the directive in the global `~/.gitconfig` file to apply
the exclude pattern to all your git repos. As with the above
`.git/info/exclude` (and, indeed, with git config directives in
general), this directive does not follow push/pull/clone, but remain
local to your repo(s).
[NOTE]
In addition to the above alternatives, there are git commands that can take
exclude patterns directly on the command line. See gitlink:git-ls-files[1]
for an example of this.
[[how-to-merge]]
How to merge
------------
@ -1857,6 +1942,27 @@ all push to and pull from a single shared repository. See
@@ -1857,6 +1942,27 @@ all push to and pull from a single shared repository. See
link:cvs-migration.txt[git for CVS users] for instructions on how to
set this up.
However, while there is nothing wrong with git's support for shared
repositories, this mode of operation is not generally recommended,
simply because the mode of collaboration that git supports--by
exchanging patches and pulling from public repositories--has so many
advantages over the central shared repository:
- Git's ability to quickly import and merge patches allows a
single maintainer to process incoming changes even at very
high rates. And when that becomes too much, git-pull provides
an easy way for that maintainer to delegate this job to other
maintainers while still allowing optional review of incoming
changes.
- Since every developer's repository has the same complete copy
of the project history, no repository is special, and it is
trivial for another developer to take over maintenance of a
project, either by mutual agreement, or because a maintainer
becomes unresponsive or difficult to work with.
- The lack of a central group of "committers" means there is
less need for formal decisions about who is "in" and who is
"out".
[[setting-up-gitweb]]
Allowing web browsing of a repository
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@ -3816,8 +3922,6 @@ Think about how to create a clear chapter dependency graph that will
@@ -3816,8 +3922,6 @@ Think about how to create a clear chapter dependency graph that will
allow people to get to important topics without necessarily reading
everything in between.
Say something about .gitignore.
Scan Documentation/ for other stuff left out; in particular: