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Git Essentials

You're reading from   Git Essentials Create, merge, and distribute code with Git, the most powerful and flexible versioning system available

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Product type Paperback
Published in Apr 2015
Publisher
ISBN-13 9781785287909
Length 168 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Ferdinando Santacroce Ferdinando Santacroce
Author Profile Icon Ferdinando Santacroce
Ferdinando Santacroce
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Toc

Taking another way – Git branching

Now, it's time to introduce one of the most used features of a versioning system: branching. This is a thing that you will use extensively and a thing that Git does well.

Anatomy of branches

A branch is essentially another way your repository takes. While programming, you will use branches to experiment with changes, without breaking the working code. You will use them to keep track of some extensive work, such as the development of a new feature, to maintain different versions or releases of your project. To put it simply, you will use it always.

When in a Git repository, you are always in a branch. If you pay attention to the Bash shell, you can easily find the branch that you are on at the moment. It is always at the prompt, within brackets, as shown here:

Anatomy of branches

The master branch is, conventionally, the default branch. When you do your first commit in a brand new repo, you actually do the first commit in the master branch.

During the course of the...

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