Git Essentials: Core Commands and Concepts

Vocabulary flashcards covering core Git commands and concepts mentioned in the lecture notes.

Git

A mature, open-source distributed version control system used to track changes in code across commits and branches (created in 2005 by Linus Torvalds).

Git repository

The core storage area for a project's history, containing commits, branches, and metadata (local or remote).

Working copy

A local, editable copy of files from a repository that you modify.

Clone

Create a working copy of an existing repository.

Init

Initialize a new Git repository in a directory (creates the .git directory).

Add

Add files to be tracked by the repository; stages changes for commit.

Commit

Record changes to the repository as a snapshot of the files at a moment in time, typically with a message.

Status

Show the current state of the working directory and staging area (which files are added, modified, or staged).

Branch

A pointer to a snapshot used to encapsulate changes; enables parallel feature development.

Master branch

The main branch where merged changes are consolidated.

Merge

Integrate changes from one branch into another (e.g., from a feature branch into master).

Pull

Fetch and merge changes from a remote repository into the local copy.

Push

Upload local commits to a remote repository (central repository).

Log

Display the history of commits in a repository; can be filtered (e.g., by date).

Checkout

Switch to a specific branch to work on it.

Remote repository

A central or remote location that stores a copy of the repository for collaboration.

.gitignore

A file named .gitignore that lists patterns of files to ignore during commits.

.git directory

The internal Git directory in the project that stores all Git data.

Git config --global user.name

Global setting that configures the user's display name for commits.

git log --since

Git log option to show commits since a specific time period (e.g., --since=10.days).