kentsommer/simpleGitGuide

Simple Introduction to Git

Install:

OSX (requires Brew - for a tutorial on installing brew look here: http://brew.sh/)
- In the command line simply enter:
```
brew install git
```
Linux/Unix
```
sudo apt-get install git
```
Windows
- Download and follow install instructions here (BASH shell version): https://msysgit.github.io/

Setup:

The first thing you will want to do is set your global username and email (at the terminal type the following)

git config --global user.name "Your Name Comes Here"
git config --global user.email "Your email goes here"

Workflow in git

The local repository on your machine consists of three basic tree-like structures

General usage: (tracking changes, committing, and pushing/pulling)

Once you have a project with git initialized, you can check the current tracking status of files in that directory by typing
```
git status
```
If a file has changes you can have git add it to the tracked changes by typing
```
git add your-file-name-here
```
(To add all untracked files):
```
git add *
```
After you have all the files you want to track added you can commit those changes with
```
git commit -m "Your commit message  here"
```
Once you are ready to push and you have committed your changes simply type
- If you are already tracking a remote (happens automatically when cloning):
```
git push origin master
```
- If you need to push to a new repository (when you initialize a new project):
```
git remote add name-here url-here  
```
  - The URL you can get after you create a new repository on the GitHub website (or whatever git hosting site you use).
If you use a repository that others make changes to, you will at some point need to get those changes from the remote server. This is accomplished with the pull command
```
git pull
```
- Assuming no conflicts are present (you both edited the same line of a file etc), this automatically takes care of merging for you and updates all your files in the project.

Adding an existing project to GitHub

The first step is to create a new repository on GitHub. To avoid errors, do not initialize the new repository with a README, license, or gitignore files (these can all be added later).
- In the upper-right corner of any page, click +, and then click New Repository
- When you are finished selecting the options for the repository select Create Repository
Next navigate the current working directory to your local project.
Initialize the local directory as a Git repository
```
git init
```
Add the files in your local repository you wish to push to git (this stages them for the first commit).
```
git add .
```
Commit the files that you have just staged
```
git commit -m "Commit Message"
```

Add the URL for the remote repository to which your local repository will be pushed.

git remote add origin remote_repository_URL
# This sets the new remote
git remote -v
# This verifies the new remote URL

Git Tagging / Releases

A tag is created to point to a specific commit and does not change afterwards, even if the branch moves on. This means tags are immutable references.
There are two types of tags that one can create with git
- The first is called a lightweight tag and can be created as follows (where tag-name can be something like v0.1, beta release one, etc):
```
git tag tag-name-here
```
- The next type is called an annotated tag and can be created as follows:
```
git tag -a v1 -m "Version 1 release"
```
To push tags to your remote, you can do two things
- To push only a specific tag use (a standard git push will not push tags):
```
git push tag-name
```
- To push all tags at once use:
```
git push --tags
```
To pull tags from your remote, you can again use two methods
- To pull only a specific tag use:
```
git fetch tag-name
```
- To pull all the tags at once use:
```
git fetch --tags
```

kentsommer / simpleGitGuide