6 ms·

Git Tutorials for Beginners

286 points by DanielRibeiro 15y ago

spacemanaki 15y ago
A few great resources are missing from that big list at the bottom: Git internals PDF (Scott Chacon) http://peepcode.com/products/git-internals-pdf http://peepcode.com/products/git-internals-pdf "Getting Git" screencast (Scott Chacon) http://blip.tv/scott-chacon/git-talk-4113729 http://blip.tv/scott-chacon/git-talk-4113729 Interactive Git cheatsheet (Andrew Peterson, NDP Software) http://www.ndpsoftware.com/git-cheatsheet.html http://www.ndpsoftware.com/git-cheatsheet.html
- igorgue 15y ago
  I loved the "Git Internals" PDF by Scott Chacon (github) probably not targeted for "Beginners" but a good read nonetheless.
- Wickk 15y ago
  I learned a lot from the Getting Git screencast when I learned how to use it, +1 from me
- dave1010uk 15y ago
  The best resource for understanding git (or probably bzr/Mercurial) IMO is definitely "The Git Parable" [1]. It takes you through the steps of what you'd do to create a DVCS. This teaches you the concepts, without worrying about the commandline. Once you understand git, the man pages, docs at kernel.org and cheatsheets are a much easier read. My go-to cheatsheet is now [2], which is actually more of a visualization of commands to use to move between git's different areas. I must admit, I still need to Google every now and then for things that are counterintuative in git (e.g. removing a submodule) and normally end up on StackOverflow. [1] http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.html http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.htm... [2] http://ndpsoftware.com/git-cheatsheet.html http://ndpsoftware.com/git-cheatsheet.html
- iki23 15y ago
  http://gitref.org http://gitref.org ... nice first user overview http://cmurphycode.posterous.com/git-201-slightly-more-advanced http://cmurphycode.posterous.com/git-201-slightly-more-advan... ... next one to read http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/git/ http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/git/ ... some visuals
staktrace 15y ago
To me the single best resource for really building a mental model of git (and not just learning how to do a handful of 'cookbook' actions) is the git user manual: http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.... Once I read that, I never had to look at any git intro tutorials again.
DrHankPym 15y ago
What really helped me understand Git was this 2-part tutorial that uses Gitk to show how your commits and merges work. Part 1 - http://lostechies.com/joshuaflanagan/2010/09/03/use-gitk-to-understand-git/ http://lostechies.com/joshuaflanagan/2010/09/03/use-gitk-to-... Part 2 - http://lostechies.com/joshuaflanagan/2010/09/03/use-gitk-to-understand-git-merge-and-rebase/ http://lostechies.com/joshuaflanagan/2010/09/03/use-gitk-to-... I'm surprised how few tutorials mention Gitk.
john2x 15y ago
A similar list for Mercurial, please?
- gomer 15y ago
  http://hginit.com/ http://hginit.com/
- baha_man 15y ago
  http://hgbook.red-bean.com/ http://hgbook.red-bean.com/
- iki23 15y ago
  http://mercurial.selenic.com/ http://mercurial.selenic.com/ ... intro, man, howto, wiki http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/mercurail/ http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/mercurail/ ... some visuals
Hawramani 15y ago
Has anyone read Apress's Pro Git by Scott Chacon? Do you recommend it?
- alinajaf 15y ago
  You mean the one available for free here: http://progit.org/ http://progit.org/ ?
- Aga 15y ago
  I absolutely recommend it! It's great. Read it online from the link provided by the comment below or buy the book, what ever suits you best. I also recommend to heavily use gitk while learning, just use it to see what happens after you do something in your test repositories. It's very enlightening.
- mkilling 15y ago
  Best Git book by far IMHO
neuroelectronic 15y ago
Why would anyone want 10 tutorials?
- skimbrel 15y ago
  To find the one that helps them the most? Not everyone learns in the same way, and not everyone teaches in the same way. The more choices you have, the more likely you are to hit on the one that lets you really grok something.
cpeterso 15y ago
Beyond git tutorials, I recommend easygit (eg). It's a "training wheels" wrapper for git and available in Ubuntu's Package Manager. http://people.gnome.org/~newren/eg/ http://people.gnome.org/~newren/eg/ easygit is git with sane defaults and better error messages. It uses real git commands, so you don't need to unlearn anything when graduating to git. It has extra sanity checks (like checking for unstaged changes when committing). The help messages are more verbose and use more consistent terminology than git's man pages. For example, easygit always uses the term "staged" instead of "index/staged/add/hard/soft/mixed/cached/HEAD/etc." And `eg revert` behaves the same as Perforce, SVN, and Mercurial revert.
- akent 15y ago
  The overloading of "checkout" to mean revert a file as well as "switch to a different branch" is for me one of the most confusing git design choices.
  - mkilling 15y ago
    1. You're right, it's confusing when coming from a Subversion background. 2. It makes sense when you realize that 'switching to a different branch' and 'reverting a file' are both operations that make your working copy (partly) match a branch, be it a different branch or just your current HEAD. Git is full of stuff like that. Once you get the fundamentals down it all starts to make sense.
    - tjogin 15y ago
      It's a poor UI even for people like me who have never used SVN. Understanding how something works after having learned it is not a sign of a good UI, a good UI facilitates easy learning by having commands do the thing you'd expect them to do, so far as that is possible. The fact that file checkouts and branch creation shares underlying mechanics have nothing to do with the UI, it'd make a lot more sense to create new branches with for instance the git branch command, and checkout files with the git checkout command. Having said that, I don't think the git UI is horrible at all. I found learning the basics of git rather easy, that doesn't mean the UI can't be improved on further, though.
kennystone 15y ago
'Pro Git' is a fine resource, but it is pretty intense for beginners. When I started, I just wanted to check something in. I've found the 'Pragmatic Guide to Git' to be the best reference for getting things done. It has a fantastic organization that sends you exactly where you need to go and lots of examples to perform the most common tasks.
decadentcactus 15y ago
I've been working through git immersion the past few days and it's definitely helped a lot. Short exercises to teach basic things.
lhnn 15y ago
Since there is no bookmark feature, "Tag"
sagarun 15y ago
"di-git-ally managing love letters" http://shakthimaan.com/downloads/glv/presentations/di-git-ally-managing-love-letters.pdf http://shakthimaan.com/downloads/glv/presentations/di-git-al... . I started using git reading it.
LTC 15y ago
cool
timfl 15y ago
http://www.gitguys.com http://www.gitguys.com is a new resource for people wanting to learn git. It has lots of diagrams that step through changes in the index, working directory, git object store, etc.

286 points by DanielRibeiro 15y ago

A few great resources are missing from that big list at the bottom: Git internals PDF (Scott Chacon) http://peepcode.com/products/git-internals-pdf http://peepcode.com/products/git-internals-pdf "Getting Git" screencast (Scott Chacon) http://blip.tv/scott-chacon/git-talk-4113729 http://blip.tv/scott-chacon/git-talk-4113729 Interactive Git cheatsheet (Andrew Peterson, NDP Software) http://www.ndpsoftware.com/git-cheatsheet.html http://www.ndpsoftware.com/git-cheatsheet.html

igorgue 15y ago
I loved the "Git Internals" PDF by Scott Chacon (github) probably not targeted for "Beginners" but a good read nonetheless.
Wickk 15y ago
I learned a lot from the Getting Git screencast when I learned how to use it, +1 from me
dave1010uk 15y ago
The best resource for understanding git (or probably bzr/Mercurial) IMO is definitely "The Git Parable" [1]. It takes you through the steps of what you'd do to create a DVCS. This teaches you the concepts, without worrying about the commandline. Once you understand git, the man pages, docs at kernel.org and cheatsheets are a much easier read. My go-to cheatsheet is now [2], which is actually more of a visualization of commands to use to move between git's different areas. I must admit, I still need to Google every now and then for things that are counterintuative in git (e.g. removing a submodule) and normally end up on StackOverflow. [1] http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.html http://tom.preston-werner.com/2009/05/19/the-git-parable.htm... [2] http://ndpsoftware.com/git-cheatsheet.html http://ndpsoftware.com/git-cheatsheet.html
iki23 15y ago
http://gitref.org http://gitref.org ... nice first user overview http://cmurphycode.posterous.com/git-201-slightly-more-advanced http://cmurphycode.posterous.com/git-201-slightly-more-advan... ... next one to read http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/git/ http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/git/ ... some visuals

staktrace 15y ago

To me the single best resource for really building a mental model of git (and not just learning how to do a handful of 'cookbook' actions) is the git user manual: http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.... Once I read that, I never had to look at any git intro tutorials again.

DrHankPym 15y ago

What really helped me understand Git was this 2-part tutorial that uses Gitk to show how your commits and merges work. Part 1 - http://lostechies.com/joshuaflanagan/2010/09/03/use-gitk-to-understand-git/ http://lostechies.com/joshuaflanagan/2010/09/03/use-gitk-to-... Part 2 - http://lostechies.com/joshuaflanagan/2010/09/03/use-gitk-to-understand-git-merge-and-rebase/ http://lostechies.com/joshuaflanagan/2010/09/03/use-gitk-to-... I'm surprised how few tutorials mention Gitk.

john2x 15y ago

A similar list for Mercurial, please?

gomer 15y ago
http://hginit.com/ http://hginit.com/
baha_man 15y ago
http://hgbook.red-bean.com/ http://hgbook.red-bean.com/
iki23 15y ago
http://mercurial.selenic.com/ http://mercurial.selenic.com/ ... intro, man, howto, wiki http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/mercurail/ http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/mercurail/ ... some visuals

Hawramani 15y ago

Has anyone read Apress's Pro Git by Scott Chacon? Do you recommend it?

alinajaf 15y ago
You mean the one available for free here: http://progit.org/ http://progit.org/ ?
Aga 15y ago
I absolutely recommend it! It's great. Read it online from the link provided by the comment below or buy the book, what ever suits you best. I also recommend to heavily use gitk while learning, just use it to see what happens after you do something in your test repositories. It's very enlightening.
mkilling 15y ago
Best Git book by far IMHO

neuroelectronic 15y ago

Why would anyone want 10 tutorials?

skimbrel 15y ago
To find the one that helps them the most? Not everyone learns in the same way, and not everyone teaches in the same way. The more choices you have, the more likely you are to hit on the one that lets you really grok something.

cpeterso 15y ago

Beyond git tutorials, I recommend easygit (eg). It's a "training wheels" wrapper for git and available in Ubuntu's Package Manager. http://people.gnome.org/~newren/eg/ http://people.gnome.org/~newren/eg/ easygit is git with sane defaults and better error messages. It uses real git commands, so you don't need to unlearn anything when graduating to git. It has extra sanity checks (like checking for unstaged changes when committing). The help messages are more verbose and use more consistent terminology than git's man pages. For example, easygit always uses the term "staged" instead of "index/staged/add/hard/soft/mixed/cached/HEAD/etc." And `eg revert` behaves the same as Perforce, SVN, and Mercurial revert.

akent 15y ago
The overloading of "checkout" to mean revert a file as well as "switch to a different branch" is for me one of the most confusing git design choices.
- mkilling 15y ago
  1. You're right, it's confusing when coming from a Subversion background. 2. It makes sense when you realize that 'switching to a different branch' and 'reverting a file' are both operations that make your working copy (partly) match a branch, be it a different branch or just your current HEAD. Git is full of stuff like that. Once you get the fundamentals down it all starts to make sense.
  - tjogin 15y ago
    It's a poor UI even for people like me who have never used SVN. Understanding how something works after having learned it is not a sign of a good UI, a good UI facilitates easy learning by having commands do the thing you'd expect them to do, so far as that is possible. The fact that file checkouts and branch creation shares underlying mechanics have nothing to do with the UI, it'd make a lot more sense to create new branches with for instance the git branch command, and checkout files with the git checkout command. Having said that, I don't think the git UI is horrible at all. I found learning the basics of git rather easy, that doesn't mean the UI can't be improved on further, though.

kennystone 15y ago

'Pro Git' is a fine resource, but it is pretty intense for beginners. When I started, I just wanted to check something in. I've found the 'Pragmatic Guide to Git' to be the best reference for getting things done. It has a fantastic organization that sends you exactly where you need to go and lots of examples to perform the most common tasks.

decadentcactus 15y ago

I've been working through git immersion the past few days and it's definitely helped a lot. Short exercises to teach basic things.

lhnn 15y ago

Since there is no bookmark feature, "Tag"

sagarun 15y ago

"di-git-ally managing love letters" http://shakthimaan.com/downloads/glv/presentations/di-git-ally-managing-love-letters.pdf http://shakthimaan.com/downloads/glv/presentations/di-git-al... . I started using git reading it.

LTC 15y ago

cool

timfl 15y ago

http://www.gitguys.com http://www.gitguys.com is a new resource for people wanting to learn git. It has lots of diagrams that step through changes in the index, working directory, git object store, etc.