Git is an essential tool in the open source developer's toolkit. This powerful version-control system has a lot of complex features. Not all of the features are necessary to use Git, but knowing more about how Git works makes working with Git easier.
During 2020, Opensource.com published many excellent articles about Git, including the top 10 covered below. Each article provides tips and tricks for improving and enhancing your Git experience.
How to resolve a git merge conflict
This tutorial by Brian Breniser begins by defining git merge and explaining what merge conflicts are. Then he provides a detailed tutorial about how to work through a merge conflict when one arises. Breniser also provides a few suggestions for where you can go to learn more about resolving merge conflicts and other Git functions.
4 Git scripts I can't live without
Vince Power shares his most important Git scripts. These scripts come from the Git Extras package, which provides over 60 scripts for enhancing Git. Power's favorite scripts are git-ignore for editing .git-ignore without opening a text editor; git-info for providing a summary about a Git repository; git-mr and git-pr for dealing with merge requests on GitLab and pull requests on GitHub; and git-release, which combines Git's commit, tag, and push into a single command.
The life-changing magic of git rebase -i
Learn how to use git rebase -i to revise your Git history in this article by Dave Neary. Neary starts by explaining how Git handles the history of commits to a repository and the differences between git commit and git rebase. Next, he explains how to use git rebase -i to alter the history of a Git repository to make things cleaner. This allows you to move changes from "fixed typo" commits into other commits and merge similar smaller commits into combined larger commits.
Make Git easy with Git Cola
Opensource.com editor Seth Kenlon demonstrates how to use Git Cola. Git is a command-line tool, which might turn some people off from using it. Git Cola provides a graphical interface to Git, so users who are not comfortable working on the command line can still take advantage of Git's features. In this article, Kenlon shows how to install Git Cola and accomplish many Git commit tasks using Git Cola's graphical user interface.
6 best practices for teams using Git
By design, Git is a collaborative tool, but many of the specifics about how to collaborate are left up to teams to decide. Ravi Chandran provides suggestions that any team could adopt to use Git more effectively. The six best practices, which Chandran explains in the article, are "formalize Git conventions," "merge changes properly," "rebase your feature branch often," "squash commits before merging," "use tags," and "make the software executable print the tag."
7 Git tricks that changed my life
Rajeev Bera shares seven Git tricks that improve the user experience when working with Git. The article explores Git's autocorrect option, counting commits, repo optimization, backing up untracked files, knowing the .git folder, viewing a file on another branch, and searching in Git.
Customizing my Linux terminal with tmux and Git
Moshe Zadka demonstrates how he used tmux and Git to customize his Linux terminal. Zadka's article is a fascinating exploration of one person's workflow. He uses GNOME Terminal but enhances it by using tmux and features that allow him to see the status of a Git repository quickly. If files need to be committed or a commit needs to be pushed, a single letter indicates that.
Make advanced Git tasks simple with Lazygit
Jesse Duffield explains how to use Lazygit, a terminal interface that makes using Git easier. Duffield, who developed Lazygit, details how to use the interface to stage files, rebase interactively, do cherry-picking, search through commits, and open a pull request.
Managing Git projects with submodules and subtrees
Submodules and subtrees are two different ways to include nested subprojects in a Git repository. In Managing Git projects with submodules and subtrees, Manaswini Das explains how the two options work and how they differ.
Don't love diff? Use Meld instead
Ben Nuttall shows how to use Meld instead of diff to compare and merge changes. Meld is a graphical alternative to diff with output that is easier to understand. Nuttall demonstrates the difference between comparing two files using diff and Meld. He also explains how Meld is Git-aware, which means it can be used to explore changes made to a file since the last time it was committed in Git.
What do you want to learn about Git? Please share your ideas in the comments, and if you have knowledge to share, please consider writing about it for Opensource.com.
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