Before usage, configuration

install

Under Linux Ubuntu or Debian:

$ sudo apt-get install git

Under Mac OS X:

• install MacPorts
• install Git

$ sudo port selfupdate

$ sudo port install git-core

Global configuration

Save the following file as your ~/.gitconfig.

[color]
    branch = auto
    diff   = auto
    status = auto
[alias]
    st        = status
    co        = checkout
    br        = branch
    lg        = log --pretty=oneline --graph
    logfull   = log --pretty=fuller --graph --stat -p
    unstage   = reset HEAD
    # there should be an article on what this command do
    uncommit = !zsh -c '"if (($0)); then nb=$(( $0 - 1 )); else nb=0; fi; i=0; while ((i<=nb)); do git revert -n --no-edit HEAD~$i; ((i++)); done; git commit -m \"revert to $0 version(s) back\""'
    undomerge = reset --hard ORIG_HEAD
	conflict  = !gitk --left-right HEAD...MERGE_HEAD
    # under Mac OS X, you should use gitx instead
	# conflict    = !gitx --left-right HEAD...MERGE_HEAD
[branch]
	autosetupmerge = true

You can achieve the same result using for each entry the command: git config --global. Next, configure your name and your email. For example, if your name is John Doe and your email is john.doe@email.com. Launch the following commands:

$ git config --global user.name John Doe

$ git config --global user.email john.doe@email.com

Here it is. Base configuration is over. The file containing alias will help to type shorter commands.

Get a project

If a project is already versionned with Git you should have an URL of the sources. Then use the following command:

$ cd ~/Projets
$ git clone git://main.server/path/to/file

If there is no git server but you’ve got an ssh access. Just replace the git://host by ssh://user@host. In order not to type your password each time, use:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa

Reply to question and *do not enter a password. Then copy your keys to the distant server. This is not the safest way to do this. The safest being, using ssh-agent.

The easiest way if you have ssh-copy-id:

me@locahost$ ssh-copy-id ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub me@main.server

or manually

me@locahost$ scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub me@main.server:
me@locahost$ ssh me@main.server
password:
me@main.server$ cat id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
me@main.server$ rm id_rsa.pub
me@main.server$ logout

Now you don’t need to write your password to access the main.server.

Creating a new project

Suppose you already have a project with files. Then it is really easy to version it.

$ cd /path/to/project
$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "Initial commit"

Let do a small remark. If you don’t want to version every file. Typically intermediate compilation file, swap files… Then you need to exclude them. Just before launching the git add . command. You need to create a .gitignore file in the root directory of your project. This file will contain all exclude pattern. For example:

*.o
*.bak
*.swp
*~

Now, if you want to create a repository on a distant server, it must not be in bare mode. The repository will contain only versionning informations, but not the files of the project. To achieve that:

$ cd /path/to/local/project
$ git clone --bare . ssh://server/path/to/project

Others will be able to get your modifications.

git clone ssh://server/path/to/project

Abstract of the second step

You now have a local directory on your computer. It is versionned and you can say it is, because there is a .git directory at the root (and the root only) of your project. This directory contain all necessary informations for Git to version your project.

Now you only need to know how to use it.

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