Distributed version control systems

Key points:

• Every clone of a git repository has the complete history of the project
• Multiple users can work on the project simultaneously
• The version control system reconciles different users’ edits

Quick intro to version control with git

Prerequisites

• install git (http://git-scm.com/)
• get an account from github.com, a free hosting service for git repositories

Optional : configure your preferred text editor¹.

One-time setup

Clone (make a copy of) a shared repository:

git clone REPOSITORY_URL

Routine work pattern

Get any new material others have added to the repository:

git pull

Edit your files, then save your changes in the local copy of the repository

git add FILENAME
git commit

Every time you commit one or more files, you will be prompted to describe your changes in a brief message.

At this stage, your changes are saved in your local copy. When you are ready to share your committed changes with the rest of your team, you can push them back to the shared repository:

git push

At any time, you can check the status of your local files to see whether any files have been changed:

git status