Version control with terminal and Git

Let’s get back into using the terminal (Command Line Interface) a little.

With just a few commands you can create a version-controlled history of your code!

Context

Why!?

Save

You gotta save the changes to the file. You’ll do it (hopefully) – after every complete bit of code you write so you can see your changes in the browser, right? It should be second nature to save or save and refresh very often as you’re working.

But saving your file essentially overwrites your previous file. There’s only one file. Every time you “save,” you rewrite the text in that file to disk and blow away whatever was there before.

For example, early video games just had one slot to save your game. You either saved or you didn’t.

Committing to version control

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2017

Committing to version control will take the current state of your repo (all the associated files / and not just the file you hit save on last) and save that version of your codebase into the commit history. You will commit this snapshot of your files to a long-lived history of your saved states. This way, you can return to any of them later and see which files were added, removed, and changed over time.

With the video game example, nowadays, most games save hundreds if not thousands of spots on your journey so that you can have a history and possibly return to one of those past saved states.

Committing your codebase changes to Git isn’t the same as saving the file as you work. You couldn’t be expected to commit to Git repository version history whenever you wanted to save your file and see the updates in the browser. Commit your code whenever you have a meaningful bit of cohesive progress. You’ll want it to make sense when looking back over the history. And these things will make more practical sense when we start using them on team projects.

Take notes

Write down any critical concepts and any of the commands – in order of importance. Try to create your own “How-to.”

(The commands are all listed out below)

Command line recap

There are some commands you’ll need. Remember these?

Terminal

Print Working Directory
```
pwd
```
Prints the current working directory you’re in.
Terminal
```
ls
```
This will list out everything in your current directory.
Terminal Command

Change directory
```
cd directory/path
```
This will change your current directory to the provided path.
Terminal

Make Directory
```
mkdir folder-name
```
Makes a directory (aka folder) inside of whatever directory you are currently in.

Git commands

Here we go.

These are the commands you’ll need for today. Did we miss any?

Terminal

git version
```
git --version
```
Checks which version of Git you have. Also useful to check and see if you have Git installed at all.

(If you don’t have it installed already, it should prompt you to install it)
Terminal

git init
```
git init
```
Initialize your current directory as a git repository.
Terminal

Change name of branch
```
git branch -m nameofbranch
```
Changes the name of your current branch. “main” is the current convention being used in 2022, so if your branch is initialized with a name other than “main” you can change it by using the command: git branch -m main.
Terminal

Check status of git repo
```
git status
```
Checks the current status of your git repository. Any changes to the folder will be shown.
Terminal

Add changes to staging area
```
git add file-path/filename.extension
```
This will add any of the changes on the file to the staging area.
Terminal

Commit files
```
git commit --message "commit message here"
```
This will commit any of the changes of your files with the associated message. You can also use the short-hand -m instead of --message.
Terminal

Check git commit history
```
git log
```
Display all past commits.

Some global settings

You’ll probably want to do these things at some point, but don’t get too tripped up by them today. If you get tripped up, give us a call and let’s go over it.

Terminal

Configure git user
```
git config --global user.name "username here"
git config --global user.email email@addresshere.com
```
These two commands will configure your username and email address for all of your commits.
Terminal

Change default initial branch name globally
```
git config --global init.defaultBranch nameofbranch
```
Whatever branch name you chose when entering this command will be the name of the initial branch whenever you initialize a git repository.