Work Locally with Git from the Command Line (Activity)

Revision as of 21:04, 16 July 2015

Background:

Directions:

Git

Download and install git for your operating system:

• Windows: http://msysgit.github.io/
• Mac OSX or Linux: http://git-scm.com/

SSH

You might want to setup an SSH key if you plan to work with remote repositories a lot. See https://help.github.com/articles/generating-ssh-keys

Help

Open a terminal (git-bash on Windows) and run the following commands.

 git help
 git help -ag
 git help init

1. What does `git help` do?
2. What does `-ag` cause `git help` to do?
3. What does `git help command` do?

You may use `git help` at any time to help you answer the questions in this activity.

Identify yourself

Run the following commands, replacing BOGUS NAME and BOGUS@EMAIL with your name and email.

 git config --global user.name 'BOGUS NAME'
 git config --global user.email 'BOGUS@EMAIL'

1. What are these commands doing?
2. What is the purpose of `--global`?

Create repository

 mkdir project
 cd project
 git init

1. What was created by `git init`?
2. Any file that starts with `.` is hidden in Linux. How do you display a hidden file in Linux?
3. What would happen if you delete `.git`?
4. You find an old project on your hard drive. You do not remember if it is a under version control by git. How can you find out?

Basic commands

Use a plain text editor to create `names.txt` inside the `project` folder. Put the names of your team in the file. Save and exit.

Run `git status` before and after each of these commands.

 git add names.txt
 git commit -m'Add our names.'
 git log

1. What kind of information does `git status` report?
2. What does `git add names.txt` do?
3. What does `git commit -m'Add our names.'` do?
4. What does `git log do`?

Use a plain text editor to create the following files:

• `birthdays.txt` - Put your birthdays in this file.
• `movies.txt` - Put the last movie each of you watched.

Run `git status` before and after each of these commands.

 git add .
 git commit  # You are in vim; write a multi-line commit message, save and quit.
 git log

1. What does `git add .` do? What do you think `.` means?
2. What does `git commit` (without -m) do?
3. If you want to write a more detailed commit message (which is good practice) what command would you use?

Stage/Cache/Index

Do the following:

• Modify `names.txt` so that names are listed in _Last, First_ format, one per line.
• Modify `movies.txt` so they are in reverse alphabetical order by title.
• Create a new file `foods.txt` that contains your favorite foods (one for each team member).

Run the following commands:

 git add names.txt
 git status

1. Below write each file name under the state that its changes are currently in. Compose a definition for each state.
   • Staged
   • Unstaged
   • Untracked
2. If you run `git commit` what changes will be committed (___don't do it___)?
3. What command do you run to stage changes?
4. What command do you run to unstage changes?

Run the following commands:

 git diff
 git diff --cached

1. What does `git diff` display?
2. What does `git diff --cached` display?
3. Formulate a sequence of commands to unstage changes to `names.txt`, and stage the changes to `movies.txt`. Execute your commands and confirm they worked.
4. Edit `movies.txt`, change any one of the movies, and save it. Then run `git status`. What do you observe? Explain what you think is going on.
5. Delete `names.txt`. Then run `git status`. What do you observe? Explain what you think is going on.
6. Rename `movies.txt` to `last-movies`. Run `git status`. Observe and explain.
7. Formulate a sequence of commands to stage all changes including the untracked file and commit (with any reasonable message you like). Execute them.
8. In git vernacular, `index`, `cache`, and `stage` all refer to the same thing. What does it hold?
9. Why have a `stage`? Why not just commit all changes since the last commit?

Undo

 git log
 git status
 git reset --soft HEAD^
 git log
 git status

1. What does `git reset --soft HEAD^` do?

 git commit -m'Redo'
 git log
 git status
 git reset --hard HEAD^
 git log
 git status

1. What does `git reset --hard HEAD^` do?
2. What is the difference between `--hard` and `--soft`?
3. What do you think `HEAD^` means?
4. What do you think `HEAD` means?

Deliverables:

Assessment:

Comments:

Additional Information:

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