Professional Git

Chapter 5Getting Productive

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Getting and working with help in Git
• Understanding the multiple repositories model
• Staging files
• Partial and interactive staging
• Committing files into the local repository
• Writing good commit messages

Now that you understand the Git workflow, how to create a repository, and how to configure the local environment, I’ll show you how to use Git to start tracking and managing content. I’ll also further explain concepts such as SHA1, options for staging files, and forming good commit messages. First, though, I’ll discuss something that both new and experienced users need to know: how to get help.

Getting Help

Git includes two different forms of help: an abbreviated version and a full version. The abbreviated version is a short list of options with brief explanations that display one per line on the terminal screen. It is invoked by using the -h option after the command, as in git commit -h.

This is useful when you just need a quick reminder of what options are available or how to specify a particular option. Figure 5.1 shows an example of abbreviated on-screen help.

Figure 5.1 Abbreviated version of help invoked with the -h option

The full version is the man page for the command, which opens up in a browser on some systems. It is invoked by using one of two forms: either adding a --help after a command or using the help ...