Unleash the Power of Git: Best Practices for Developers

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Introduction: Why use git?

Git is a very powerful version control system that helps developers manage and collaborate on code effectively. With Git, you can easily track code changes, roll back erroneous commits, and collaborate with team members. In addition, Git also provides many advanced features such as branching and merging, enabling you to easily manage complex code bases. In short, using Git can improve development efficiency, promote team collaboration, and help you better manage your code.

1. Review of Git basic knowledge

The basic concepts of Git, warehouse, commit, branch and merge
1. Repository: A repository is where code and history are stored. You can create a repository on your local computer, or create a repository on a remote server such as GitHub.
2. Commit: A commit is a record of changes to a code repository. Every time you make a change to your code and commit, Git creates a new commit for you with details of the changes you made.
3. Branch (Branch): Branches allow you to work on multiple versions of code concurrently in the same repository. For example, you can do new feature development on one branch while fixing bugs on another branch.
4. Merge: Merging is the process of applying changes from one branch to another. For example, when you finish developing a new feature, you can merge the new feature branch into the main branch to release the new feature to the production environment.
How to install and configure Git
On Windows, you can download the installer from the official Git website (https://git-scm.com) and run it. Once installed, you can find Git Bash in the Start menu and open it.
On macOS, you can use Homebrew (https://brew.sh) to install Git. First, install Homebrew in the terminal, then run the command "brew install git" to install Git.
On Linux, you can use your package manager to install Git. For example, on Debian based systems like Ubuntu, you can run the command "sudo apt-get install git" to install Git.

Once installed, you need to do some basic configuration of Git. Open a terminal or Git Bash and run the following commands to set your username and email address:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

This information will be used to record the submissions you make. You can also run the "git config --list" command to see all configuration options.

How to use Git for version control, including initializing the warehouse, adding and committing changes, viewing history, etc.
Initializing the warehouse:

To initialize a repository with Git, you can use git initthe command. git initis a one-time command used during the initial setup of a new repository. Executing this command will create a new .git subdirectory in the current working directory. This will also create a new master branch.
For example, if you want to create a repository in an existing project folder, you can first use cdthe command to enter the project root folder, and then execute git initthe command. For example:

cd /path/to/your/existing/code
git init

This will initialize an empty Git repository in your project directory.

Add and commit changes:

To add and commit changes using Git, you need to create new files or edit existing files in your local project directory. Then, enter at a command-line prompt in your local project directory git add --allto add files or changes to the repository. Next, you can use git commit -m "提交信息"the command to commit your changes, providing a descriptive commit message within quotes.
For example:

git add --all
git commit -m "更新README文件"

This will add and commit your changes to the repository

View history:

To view history with Git, you can use git log命令。默认情况下，git log 会按时间倒序显示提交的信息，包括提交的SHA-1校验和、作者名称和电子邮件、日期和提交信息。
for example:

git log

You can also use various options to customize git logthe output. For example, you can use the -por --patchoption to show the diff introduced by each commit. You can also -2limit the number of log entries displayed using options like
For example:

git log -p -2

This will display the details of the last two commits.

How to Use Branching and Merging to Manage Code
Branches allow you to independently develop different features or fix bugs within the same code base. When you finish a feature or fix a bug, you can merge the branch back into the main branch to integrate the changes into the main codebase.
To create a new branch you can use git branchthe command. For example, to create a featurenew branch named you would execute the following command:

git branch feature

You can then use git checkoutthe command to switch to the new branch and develop on that branch. For example:

git checkout feature

When you're done developing and ready to merge your changes back into the master branch, you can use git mergethe command. First, you need to switch back to the branch you want to merge into (eg, masterbranch). Then, execute git mergethe command, specifying the name of the branch to be merged.
For example:

git checkout master
git merge feature

This will featuremerge the changes from the branch into masterthe branch.

How to Collaborate Using Remote Warehouses
A remote warehouse is a version library hosted on the network that can be used to share code and collaborate on development. You can link your local repository with a remote repository to push and pull code.
To add a new remote repository, you can use the git remote add command. For example, to add a remote repository named origin, you can execute the following command:

git remote add origin <REMOTE_URL>

where <REMOTE_URL>is the URL of the remote repository.
After adding a remote repository, you can use the git push command to push your local changes to the remote repository. For example:

git push origin master

This will push the changes in the local master branch to the remote repository named origin.
You can also pull changes from a remote repository using the git pull command. For example:

git pull origin master

This pulls the changes in the master branch from the remote repository named origin and merges them into the local branch.

2. Branch strategy and workflow

There are three main branch strategies of Git:Git Flow、GitHub Flow、TBD. in:

Git Flow is a very popular branching strategy, it was proposed by Vincent Driessen in 2010. Git Flow divides the code base into two main branches: master and develop. The master branch contains all the code released to the production environment, and the develop branch contains all the latest development code.
GitHub Flow is a lightweight branching strategy. It has only one main branch master, and all development is carried out on this branch.
TBD is a new branch strategy proposed by Google. TBD is the abbreviation of Trunk Based Development. It is a trunk development model and a branch management strategy. In TBD, developers agree to submit code to the branch designated as the trunk, so as to resist the development pressure caused by long-standing multi-branches. This can avoid the trouble of branch merging and ensure that you have a releaseable version at any time.

Git's workflow usually consists of the following steps:

Clone Git resources as working directory
Add or modify files on cloned resources
You can update the resource if someone else modifies it
Review changes before submitting
Submit changes

You can choose the Git workflow and branching strategy that suits you according to the size of your team and development needs.

3. How to write Git submission information?

In order to ensure the maintainability of the code, you should follow the following points:

Each commit should only contain one change. This makes changes easier to understand and review.
Commits should be atomic. This means that the commit should be complete and should not contain only part of the changes.
Commit should make sense. Commits should describe the purpose of the change, not how it was made.
Commits should follow a consistent format. This makes commits easier to read and understand.
Commits should contain sufficient context. This makes changes easier to understand and review.

4. Resolving conflicts and merging code

In Git, when the code of two branches conflicts, it needs to be merged. The way to resolve the conflict is to delete the contradictory code in the code, and git pullthen git pushMERGING appears when uploading or pulling down or , indicating a code merge conflict. When opening the conflict file to resolve code conflicts, try to keep all the different codes, and only keep one copy of the common code. After resolving the code conflicts, re- addand commitfinally push.

5. Code review with Git

Git provides the Pull Request function, which can be used for code review. A Pull Request is a way of submitting code that allows you to commit your code changes to a branch and then ask others to review and merge your changes. Pull Requests can be used for code review, discussion, and feedback.

On GitHub, Pull Requests are a Git-based feature that allows you to present your work to others and request feedback. When you create a Pull Request, you propose some changes and ask others to review and merge those changes. Pull Requests can be used for code review, discussion, and feedback.

On GitLab, Merge Request is a Git-based feature that allows you to present your work to others and request feedback. When you create a Merge Request, you propose some changes and ask others to review and merge those changes. Merge Request can be used for code review, discussion and feedback.

On Bitbucket, Pull Requests are a Git-based feature that allows you to present your work to others and request feedback. When you create a Pull Request, you propose some changes and ask others to review and merge those changes. Pull Requests can be used for code review, discussion, and feedback.

6. Combination of continuous integration and continuous deployment with Git

Continuous Integration (CI for short) refers to the frequent (multiple times a day) integration of code into the trunk. Continuous delivery/continuous deployment (Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Deployment (CD)) is equivalent to a further CI, which can deploy the application to the production environment every time it is pushed to the default branch of the warehouse.

Git provides tools to help you achieve continuous integration and continuous deployment. For example, you can use Git Hooks to automate testing, building, and deploying. Git Hooks are scripts that run on specific Git operations. For example, running tests when committing code, and running build and deployment scripts when code is pushed.

Jenkins is a popular open source CI/CD tool that integrates with Git to help you achieve continuous integration and continuous deployment. Jenkins can automatically run tests, build and deploy scripts every time you commit code, and feed back the results to you.

In addition to Jenkins, there are other popular CI/CD tools such as Travis CI, CircleCI, and GitLab CI/CD. These tools can all integrate with Git and help you achieve continuous integration and continuous deployment.

In summary, Git provides many tools to help you achieve continuous integration and continuous deployment. You can use Git Hooks to automate testing, building, and deployment, or you can use popular CI/CD tools such as Jenkins to help you achieve continuous integration and continuous deployment.

7. Use hooks to automate workflows

Git hooks are scripts that run on specific Git operations. For example, running tests when committing code, and running build and deployment scripts when code is pushed. You can use Git hooks to automate workflows such as automatically running tests, builds, and deployments.

Git hooks are divided into client-side hooks and server-side hooks. Client-side hooks run locally, server-side hooks run on the Git server.

The way Git hooks work is that when a specific Git action occurs, Git runs the corresponding hook script. For example, Git runs pre-commit hook scripts when code is committed. You can write automated test, build, and deploy scripts in hook scripts to run them automatically on certain Git actions.

Here's an example of using Git hooks to automate a workflow:

Create a directory called .git/hooks under the project root.
Create a file called pre-commit in the .git/hooks directory.
Write automated test, build and deploy scripts in pre-commit files.
Make the pre-commit file executable.
In this way, when the code is submitted, Git will automatically run the script in the pre-commit file, thereby realizing automated testing, building and deployment.

You can use Git hooks to automate workflows such as automatically running tests, builds, and deployments. You can write automated test, build, and deploy scripts in hook scripts to run them automatically on certain Git actions.

8. Solutions to common problems

How to resolve Git merge conflicts?
When merging code, a merge conflict occurs when Git detects that both branches have modified the same line of code. You can use Git's merge tools to resolve merge conflicts.
How to undo a Git commit?
If you commit the wrong code, you can use Git's undo command to undo the commit. You can use the git reset command to undo commits.
How to roll back a Git commit?
If you need to roll back to a previous commit, you can use Git's rollback command to roll back the commit. You can roll back commits with the git revert command.
How to view Git commit history?
You can use Git's log command to view commit history. You can use the git log command to view the commit history.

Conclusion: Importance of Git in Software Development

Git is a very important tool that helps you manage code versions, collaborate on development, resolve conflicts and merge code, conduct code reviews, continuous integration and continuous deployment, etc. Using Git allows you to better organize and manage your code and improve development efficiency. This article covers the basics of Git, branching strategies and workflows, how to write Git commit messages, resolve conflicts and merge code, use Git for code review, continuous integration and continuous deployment with Git, use hooks to automate workflows, and frequently asked questions solution. Hope this article helps you understand Git better!