How Git Works: Explained in 4 Minutes

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Git MERGE vs REBASE: Everything You Need to Know
: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0chZFIZLR_0

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Git can seem confusing at first, but understanding a few key concepts makes it much clearer. In this video, we’ll walk through the basic Git command workflow and clear up some common misconceptions. I’m Sahn, co-author of best-selling system design interview books. We explain complex system design concepts clearly through animations. Let’s get started. Before we dive into the commands, let’s identify where our code is stored in Git. The common assumption is that there are only two locations, but our code doesn’t only exist on GitHub or our local machine. There are four main locations where your code lives in Git: The Working Directory: Where we actively edit files locally. This is our playground. The Staging Area: It’s a temporary holding spot for changes before committing. The Local Repository: This is where we store committed changes locally. The Remote Repository: A server like GitHub for sharing and backing up code. With these zones in mind, let’s visualize where our code travels throughout its journey. Most git commands move files between these four locations. The first step is to git clone an existing repository so you have a local version of the project to work on, complete with all its history. With the repo cloned locally, let’s look at where the code lives. When you start working on a file, you’re in the Working Directory. This is your local development environment where you make changes to your code. Now, when you’re ready to commit your changes, you’ll use git add to stage a snapshot of those files in the Staging Area. Think of this as a checkpoint, where your changes are gathered up and ready to be finalized. The next step is to use git commit, which takes a snapshot of the staging area and saves it to your Local Repository. This locks in those staged changes by creating a permanent record that you can refer back to, like a snapshot in time. Your code doesn’t just stay on your local machine. When you’re ready to share your progress with the team or back up your work, you use git push to send your commits to the Remote Repository. This is often a shared server where your team can collaborate, like GitHub or Bitbucket. Collaboration in Git is a two-way exchange. To integrate your teammates’ work, you use git pull, which fetches changes from the remote repository and merges them into your local repository. It combines two commands: git fetch, which grabs the latest updates, and git merge, which integrates these updates with your work. There are times when you need to switch contexts, perhaps to fix a bug on another branch. That’s where git checkout or git switch comes in. It allows you to switch between different branches to work on specific features. Git branching allows you to diverge from the main codebase to develop a new feature without impacting the main code. Some key concepts include creating a new branch with git branch, switching between branches using git switch, merging branches together with git merge, and resolving merge conflicts when changes overlap. Branching enables isolated development and collaboration workflows. There are more nuance when merging or rebasing changes from others or managing branches. We have a dedicated video on merging and rebasing that we encourage you to watch. Many developers use graphical git tools like GitHub Desktop and SourceTree. These tools provide visual interfaces and shortcuts for common commands. They can help new users get started with git more easily. If you like our videos, you might like our System Design newsletter, as well. It covers topics in trends and large-scale system design. Trusted by 500,000 readers. Subscribe at blog.bytebytego.com.