5 ms·

Tips for Intermediate Git Users

158 points by rohitarondekar 16y ago

yuvadam 16y ago
Great tips. Git is arguably one of the best pieces of software created in the past decade. Its learning curve is definitely steep, but it's exactly tips like these which give a perspective of Git's true power.
- hasenj 16y ago
  I didn't find the learning curve to be steep. The core of git is really simple. If you understand objects, hashes, blobs, trees, commits, then you pretty much know the basic vocabulary and you'll be able to learn more as you go. This is a really good explanation for these basics: http://ftp.newartisans.com/pub/git.from.bottom.up.pdf http://ftp.newartisans.com/pub/git.from.bottom.up.pdf
  - funksta 16y ago
    I think the learning curve tends to be steeper if you have to "unlearn" some of your preconceived notions from using a centralized VCS.
nuclear_eclipse 16y ago
Maybe I really am just that good, but only a few of these "tips" strike me as targetted at intermediate users. Most of them seem to me like beginner information...
- zacharypinter 16y ago
  Agreed, though it's still nice to find the odd command or two that slipped through the cracks. I didn't know about these: $ git log --grep="Something in the message" $ git log -S "TODO: Check for admin status"
- hasenj 16y ago
  The intermediate stuff starts after #10
seabee 16y ago
"1 Way To Go Against HN Guidelines" It's a mixture of basic and interesting tips, I'd much rather the interesting tips be separated out; feels like the author was padding the article out for the sake of a title.
- count 16y ago
  Was the headline edited after this comment? It seems fine to me now?
maw 16y ago
Tip 12 looks suspicious, at least for the use case given. I'm not wild about storing passwords on a production machine, but if you're going to do it, don't kid yourself that gaining much by hiding it inside git's db. Still, tip 12 was new to me, so I'd be interested in seeing a better use case.
- technoweenie 16y ago
  The other thing to keep in mind is that `git gc` may prune loose objects that are created without any references. "git gc tries very hard to be safe about the garbage it collects. In particular, it will keep not only objects referenced by your current set of branches and tags, but also objects referenced by the index, remote-tracking branches, refs saved by git filter-branch in refs/original/, or reflogs (which may reference commits in branches that were later amended or rewound)." -- http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-gc.html http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-gc.html
  - draebek 16y ago
    Note that he does add a tag to the object he creates, presumably so it doesn't get collected.
- CUViper 16y ago
  I'm tempted to stuff tarballs in there for my pre-built release binaries, especially since I could give it a gpg signature in the tag. I wouldn't do this for large projects, but the case I have in mind is a tiny utility, ~25KB. Does anyone know how github will handle tags pointing to a blob instead of a tree? EDIT: On second thought, it probably makes more sense to have a "prebuilt" branch that has the actual tree of my release package. That would also let git share objects that are common to the source branch: README, manpages, etc.
clyfe 16y ago
Bad name: 25 Tips for Intermediate Git Users Good name: Tips for Intermediate Git Users
- kanak 16y ago
  Better name: Tips for Beginners to Git
icefox 16y ago
How about just trying to unlock all of the git achievements. Do that and you will discover a lot about git.

158 points by rohitarondekar 16y ago

Great tips. Git is arguably one of the best pieces of software created in the past decade. Its learning curve is definitely steep, but it's exactly tips like these which give a perspective of Git's true power.

hasenj 16y ago
I didn't find the learning curve to be steep. The core of git is really simple. If you understand objects, hashes, blobs, trees, commits, then you pretty much know the basic vocabulary and you'll be able to learn more as you go. This is a really good explanation for these basics: http://ftp.newartisans.com/pub/git.from.bottom.up.pdf http://ftp.newartisans.com/pub/git.from.bottom.up.pdf
- funksta 16y ago
  I think the learning curve tends to be steeper if you have to "unlearn" some of your preconceived notions from using a centralized VCS.

nuclear_eclipse 16y ago

Maybe I really am just that good, but only a few of these "tips" strike me as targetted at intermediate users. Most of them seem to me like beginner information...

zacharypinter 16y ago
Agreed, though it's still nice to find the odd command or two that slipped through the cracks. I didn't know about these: $ git log --grep="Something in the message" $ git log -S "TODO: Check for admin status"
hasenj 16y ago
The intermediate stuff starts after #10

seabee 16y ago

"1 Way To Go Against HN Guidelines" It's a mixture of basic and interesting tips, I'd much rather the interesting tips be separated out; feels like the author was padding the article out for the sake of a title.

count 16y ago
Was the headline edited after this comment? It seems fine to me now?

maw 16y ago

Tip 12 looks suspicious, at least for the use case given. I'm not wild about storing passwords on a production machine, but if you're going to do it, don't kid yourself that gaining much by hiding it inside git's db. Still, tip 12 was new to me, so I'd be interested in seeing a better use case.

technoweenie 16y ago
The other thing to keep in mind is that `git gc` may prune loose objects that are created without any references. "git gc tries very hard to be safe about the garbage it collects. In particular, it will keep not only objects referenced by your current set of branches and tags, but also objects referenced by the index, remote-tracking branches, refs saved by git filter-branch in refs/original/, or reflogs (which may reference commits in branches that were later amended or rewound)." -- http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-gc.html http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-gc.html
- draebek 16y ago
  Note that he does add a tag to the object he creates, presumably so it doesn't get collected.
CUViper 16y ago
I'm tempted to stuff tarballs in there for my pre-built release binaries, especially since I could give it a gpg signature in the tag. I wouldn't do this for large projects, but the case I have in mind is a tiny utility, ~25KB. Does anyone know how github will handle tags pointing to a blob instead of a tree? EDIT: On second thought, it probably makes more sense to have a "prebuilt" branch that has the actual tree of my release package. That would also let git share objects that are common to the source branch: README, manpages, etc.

clyfe 16y ago

Bad name: 25 Tips for Intermediate Git Users Good name: Tips for Intermediate Git Users

kanak 16y ago
Better name: Tips for Beginners to Git

icefox 16y ago

How about just trying to unlock all of the git achievements. Do that and you will discover a lot about git.