Learn How to Code
  • Welcome
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    • Introduction
      • Becoming a web developer
      • Motivation and mindset
      • Join a supportive community
      • How does the web work?
    • Requirements
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      • Git basics
      • Project: Practicing Git
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      • Project: Create a web page
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      • Strings and Conditionals
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      • Project: Rock paper scissors
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      • Project: Etch-A-Sketch
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      • Project: Calculator
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  • Deep dives
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      • Pseudocode and algorithms
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        • Project: Fibs and sorting
        • More on algorithms
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        • Project: Practicing Big O
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        • Project: Stacks and Queues
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        • Project: Linked Lists
        • Project: Trees
        • Next steps
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      • Project: SQL Zoo
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      • Project: Teardown
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      • Project: Mobile friendly
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      • Project: Bootstrapping
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      • HTML Basics
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        • Project: Embedding media
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        • Project: Make a form
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        • Box model
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        • Project: Breaking news
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        • Project: One more thing
        • CSS3
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        • Project: Your own framework
      • Next steps
    • JavaScript
      • Refresher
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      • Objects and constructors
      • Project: Library
      • Factory functions and module patterns
      • Project: Tic Tac Toe
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      • Project: Restaurant
      • Object Oriented Programming
      • Project: Todo list
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      • Using APIs
      • Async and Await
      • Project: Weather
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      • Project: Testing 1-2-3
      • Advanced Testing
      • Project: Battleship
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      • Project: Where's Waldo?
      • Project: All-Star
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    • NodeJS
      • Project: Going to school
      • Project: Passing the test
      • Express
        • Templates and middleware
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        • Project: Message board
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        • Project: Inventory
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      • Project: Clubhouse
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      • Securing an API
      • Project: Blog
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      • Testing with a database
      • Project: Social network
    • React
      • Props and State
      • Render lists and handle inputs
      • Project: CV
      • Lifecycle methods
      • Hooks
      • Project: Memory card
      • Router
      • Project: Shopping cart
      • Advanced concepts
    • Ruby
      • Installation
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      • Project: Caesar cipher
      • Project: Substrings
      • Project: Stock picker
      • Project: Bubble sort
      • Object oriented programming
      • Project: Tic Tac Toe
      • Project: Mastermind
      • Serialization
      • Project: Event manager
      • Project: Hangman
      • Computer Science
        • Recursion
        • Project: Merge Sort
        • Data structures and algorithms
        • Project: Linked Lists
        • Project: Binary Search Trees
        • Project: Knight Travails
      • Testing
      • RSpec
      • Project: Four in a row
      • Git
      • Project: Open Source
      • Project: Chess
      • Next steps
    • Ruby on Rails
      • Using Heroku
      • Installing Rails
      • Basics
        • Routing
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        • Deployment
        • Project: Blog
      • Active Record
        • Project: Upvote
      • Forms
        • Cookies, sessions, and authentication
        • Project: Password
      • Advanced forms and Active Record
        • Associations
        • Project: Private Events
        • Callbacks
        • Menus, helpers and nested forms
        • Project: Ticket agent
      • APIs
        • External APIs
        • Project: Animals
        • Project: Photo widget
      • Mailers
        • Project: Confirmation
      • Advanced topics
        • Action Cable
      • Project: Social network
      • Next steps
  • Getting hired
    • Preparing to find a job
      • Plan a strategy
      • What companies want
      • Get yourself together
      • How to prepare
      • Project: Make your website
    • Applying and interviewing
      • Qualifying leads
      • Project: Make your resume
      • Applying for jobs
      • Preparing for an interview
      • Handling an offer
      • Final words
  • Maintained by
    • wbnns
  • License
    • CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 © 2022
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On this page
  • Introduction
  • Learning outcomes
  • Assignment
  • Additional resources
  1. Deep dives
  2. Ruby

Git

This section should help you take the first steps towards expanding your Git toolkit and understanding what's actually going on under the hood with Git.

PreviousProject: Four in a rowNextProject: Open Source

Last updated 4 years ago

Introduction

Hopefully you've been using the basic Git commands to create repositories and push your code up to GitHub. If not, you've got a bit of catching up to do but don't worry.

In any case, Git is a crucial skill to have whether you're a professional web developer or just a hobbyist who needs to back up your code base. It's the "save" button on steroids and it allows giant teams of developers to collaborate. There really aren't all that many commands for you to learn either, but sometimes the real difficulty of it comes from visualizing in your head what it's actually doing.

In this lesson, we'll dive deeper than just the $ git add . and $ git commit and $ git push commands you've mostly been using. Maybe you've had the dubious pleasure of getting a merge conflict when you tried to pull or push changes. Maybe you're just curious how multiple developers can work on a single code base at the same time. Either way, this section should help you take the first steps towards expanding your Git toolkit and understanding what's actually going on under the hood with Git.

It's important to take a look at this stuff before getting any deeper into things because the project work is becoming more and more complex so using a disciplined Git workflow is no longer optional. The axiom used to be "save early and often" and now it's "commit early and often". Hopefully, after you've finished this lesson you will feel much more comfortable with the basics and at least know what to Google if you'd like to do more.

We'll begin by reading some things that are probably review from but, if you're like most people, you could benefit from a refresher. We'll then dive deeper into topics that are relevant so you can use git for a more effective workflow, whether you're just working on your own project or trying to bring in collaborators as well.

Learning outcomes

Look through these now and then use them to test yourself after doing the assignment:

  • How do you amend a commit message that you just messed up?

  • How do you view the history of your most recent commits?

  • What are two different uses for $ git checkout?

  • How do you undo a recent commit?

  • What are branches?

  • How do you create a new branch to work on?

  • How do you push that (non-master) branch up to GitHub?

  • How do you merge the changes from your new branch into the master branch again?

  • Why is working with feature branches useful?

  • What is the difference between using $ git merge and $ git rebase? (hint: history)

  • What is the difference between a "remote" and your local repo?

  • How do you add your GitHub repo as the remote?

Assignment

Additional resources

This section contains helpful links to other content. It isn't required, so consider it supplemental for if you need to dive deeper into something.

If you haven't had the chance to do so, go through the .

Read of the . (Click "next" at the bottom of the page to get to the next page. You want to read from page 2.1 "Getting a Git Repository" through page 2.8 "Summary".)

Read of the . (Click "next" at the bottom of the page to get to the next page. You want to read from page 3.1 "Branches in a Nutshell" through page 3.7 "Summary".)

To learn about some of the more advanced undo tools that Git offers, read these two additional pages from the : and .

Watch if you'd like a refresher of things.

Read if you need a reference sheet.

Watch for an example on how to use both rebase and merge.

Foundations
Foundations Git Basics section
Chapter 2: Git Basics
ProGit book
Chapter 3: Git Branching
ProGit book
ProGit book
Rewriting History
Reset Demystified
Get Going from Pro Git
Git Cheat Sheet
Using Rebase & Merge