Introduction to Git

Git is a distributed version control system — it tracks every change to your code, lets you revert to any previous state, and enables multiple people to collaborate without overwriting each other's work. It was created by Linus Torvalds (the creator of Linux) in 2005.

Git vs GitHub

These are different things:

• Git is the tool that runs on your computer and tracks changes.
• GitHub (and GitLab, Bitbucket) is a hosting service that stores Git repositories online and adds collaboration features (pull requests, issues, CI/CD).

Setup

Configure your identity once (it's attached to every commit you make):

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

Creating a repository

# Start tracking a new project
git init

# Or copy an existing remote repository
git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git

git init creates a hidden .git folder that stores the entire history and configuration.

Checking status

The command you'll run most often shows what's changed:

git status

It tells you which files are modified, staged, or untracked.

.gitignore

List files Git should never track — dependencies, build output, secrets:

node_modules
.env
.next
dist
*.log