First steps with Git & Git Essentials

Session 04

Slides Chapter: First steps with Git Chapter: Git Essentials Quiz: Git Basics

This session

In this session, you will work on the following tasks:

1. Reading: Read the chapter(s) “First steps with Git” and “Git Essentials” in the Version Control Book.
2. Implementation: Try out the commands in the chapter.
3. Exercises: Work on the exercises for the recipes project.
4. Quiz: Test your knowledge with the quiz.

As always:

1. Try out the commands of this session and play around with them.
2. Check whether you have achieved the learning objectives.
3. Ask questions!
4. Let’s git started!

Learning objectives

At the end of this session, you should be able to answer the following questions and / or achieve the following learning objectives:

First steps with Git

💡 You can initialize a Git repository.
💡 You can check the status of a Git repository.
💡 You understand the difference between the staging area and a commit.
💡 You can stage and commit changes.
💡 You understand the difference between a commit message and a description.

Git Essentials

💡 You know how to explore the commit history.
💡 You can compare different commits.
💡 You know how to use and create a .gitignore file.
💡 You can discuss which files can (not) be tracked well with Git and why.
💡 You know how to track empty folders in Git repositories.

recipes project

First steps with Git

At the end of this session, you should have accomplished the following:

1. You set up Git.
2. You initialized your recipes folder as a Git repository.
3. You committed your first file to the recipes repository.

Please keep the recipes folder! We will continue to use it in the following sessions.

Git Essentials

At the end of this session, you should have accomplished the following:

1. Commit at least three changes in recipes.txt.
2. Make at least one commit using git commit --amend.
   • For example, add a a new entry without a title first, commit, then add a title and use git commit --amend to add the title change to the same commit.
3. Create a .gitignore file.
   • Everyone: Create a random file that you want to ignore, for example image.jpg.
   • All macOS users: Let your repository ignore .DS_Store.
4. 🚀 Optional: Commit .gitkeep in an otherwise empty directory.

Please keep the recipes folder! We will continue to use it in the following sessions.

Exercises

Initialize a Git repository

1. If needed, navigate to the project folder using the command line.
2. Initialize a new Git repository in the project folder.

Add content and commit changes

3. Create a new text file and name it appropriately.
4. Add a short entry to the text file (any favorite or an intriguing AI-generated one).
5. Stage the new file.
6. Commit the changes in the text file with a descriptive commit message.

🚀 Optional: Commit at least three additional changes in your new file.

Amend a commit

1. If needed, navigate to the project folder using the command line.
2. Make additional changes to your project text file.
3. Stage the changes.
4. Amend the previous commit to include the new changes.
5. Check the commit history to verify that the last commit message has not changed.

For example, add a new entry without a title first, commit, then add a title and amend the previous commit to add the title change to the same commit.

Create a .gitignore file

1. If needed, navigate to the project folder using the command line.
2. Add a random file to your repository that you want to ignore, for example an image file like image.jpg.
3. Check the state of your repository to confirm that Git noticed the added file.
4. Create a .gitignore file.
5. Add the random file to the .gitignore file.
6. Check the state of your repository again to confirm that Git now ignores the added file.
7. Stage the changes in your repository.
8. Commit the .gitignore file using a descriptive commit message.
9. 🚀 All macOS users: Let your repository ignore .DS_Store.

Slides

How can I download the slides as a PDF file?

To export the slides to PDF, do the following:

1. Toggle into Print View using the E key (or using the Navigation Menu).
2. Open the in-browser print dialog (CTRL/CMD+P).
3. Change the Destination setting to Save as PDF.
4. Change the Layout to Landscape.
5. Change the Margins to None.
6. Enable the Background graphics option.
7. Click Save.

Note: This feature has been confirmed to work in Google Chrome, Chromium as well as in Firefox.

Here’s what the Chrome print dialog would look like with these settings enabled:

These instructions were copied from the Quarto documentation (MIT License) and slightly modified.

Cheatsheet

First steps with Git

Command	Description
git init	Initializes a folder as a Git repository
git status	Shows Git tracking status of files in the repository
git add	Adds file(s) to the staging area
git commit	Commits staged files
git commit -m "commit message"	Commits staged files with a commit message

Git Essentials

Command	Description
git log	Views past commits
git diff	Views made changes compared to the last commit
git mv	Renames or moves files and automatically stages the changes