Version control is a system that records changes to files over time, allowing you to recall specific versions later. Without version control, we often end up with multiple file versions scattered everywhere, leading to confusion and lost work. Version control systems like Git solve this by automatically tracking every change, enabling safe collaboration, and maintaining a complete project history.
Git is a distributed version control system, meaning every developer has a complete copy of the project history. Key concepts include repositories which are project folders, commits which are snapshots of changes, branches for parallel development, and merges to combine changes. The basic workflow involves initializing a repository, staging changes with git add, committing snapshots, and pushing to remote repositories.
GitHub is a web-based platform built on top of Git that provides hosting for repositories and collaboration tools. Key features include remote repository hosting, pull requests for code review, issues for tracking bugs, and forks for creating independent copies. The typical workflow involves cloning a repository locally, making changes, pushing to GitHub, creating pull requests for review, and merging approved changes.
To get started with Git, you need to master a few essential commands. For repository setup, use git init to create a new repository or git clone to copy an existing one. The daily workflow involves git status to check changes, git add to stage files, git commit to save snapshots, git push to upload, and git pull to download updates. For branching, use git branch to list branches, git checkout to create new ones, and git merge to combine changes.
To summarize what we've learned: Version control systems like Git automatically track changes to files over time. Git is a distributed version control system that maintains complete project history locally. GitHub builds on Git by adding web-based collaboration features like pull requests and issue tracking. Master the basic commands of init, add, commit, push, and pull to get started. Version control is essential for any software development project, enabling safe collaboration and change management.