Git: Tracking changes in a project

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• 4 min read

Installing Git

Creating a new repository with github

Initializing
git init

git add . # tracks all the files

git status

git commit -m "commit message here"

git status

git branch -M main

git remote add origin git@github.com:my_username/my_repo_name.git

git push -u origin main

  • Initialize a git repository, run git init.

  • Track all the files in the repository by running git add ..

  • Commit the changes by running git commit -am "commit message here". This captures a snapshot of the repository at it's current stage.

  • Push the changes to the remote repository by running git push origin main.

  • Check the status of the repository by running git status. If you run this command before committing, you will see a list of files that have been added, modified, or deleted.

  • We now have to connect to a remote repository, which is basically a URL to a repository that can be accessed by other people. There are many cloud-based hosting services that let you manage Git repositories, Github being a popular choice. To do this create a new repository in your Github account and create a new repository.

  • Run git branch -M main to create a default branch called main.

  • Add a remote repository to your local repository. To do this run git remote add origin <remote url>.

git remote add origin git@github.com:<GITHUB_USERNAME>/<GITHUB_REPOSITORY_NAME>.git

Pushing changes to remote repository

git add . # git add file

git commit -m "made a change"

git push origin main

Commit without message

Git by default does not allow us to commit without a message. To do this we can use the --allow-empty option.

git commit --allow-empty -m ''

Removing a file from the repository

# add .env to .gitignore

git rm -r --cached .env

git filter-branch --index-filter "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch .env" HEAD

git push --force
  • Add the file(.env in this case) that is to be removed to .gitignore and remove it from git using git rm.
  • The file(.env) still exists in our history and the contents are still visible. We'll have to filter it out of all the branches using git filter-branch.
git filter-branch --index-filter "git rm -rf --cached --ignore-unmatch .env" HEAD
  • Since we are changing the history of both local and remote repository, we have force push the changes to the remote repository using git push --force.

You can also have a look at the example show in git docs

Glossary

git stash: It temporarily shelves (or stashes) changes you've made to your working copy so you can work on something else, and then come back and re-apply them. It enables you to switch branches without committing the current branch.

Helpful stuff