What is Git?
Git is an open-source distributed Version control system.
Git was created by Linus Torvalds in 2005.
It is designed to handle minor to major projects with high speed and efficiency. It is developed to coordinate the work among the developers
The version control allows us to track and work together with our team members in the same workspace.
Features of Git
Open Source
Git is an open-source tool. It is released under the GPL (General Public License) license.Scalable
Git is scalable, which means when the number of users increases, Git can easily handle such situations.Distributed
Unlike centralized version control systems, Git is distributed, meaning that every developer has a complete copy of the entire project history on their local machine. This decentralization facilitates collaboration and enables developers to work offline.
Benefits of Git
A version control application allows us to keep track of all the changes that we make in the files of our project. Every time we make changes in the files of an existing project, we can push those changes to a repository.
Other developers are allowed to pull your changes from the repository and continue to work with the updates that you added to the project files.
Some significant benefits of using Git are as follows:
Saves Time
Git is lightning-fast technology. Each command takes only a few seconds to execute so we can save a lot of time as compared to logging to a GitHub account and finding out its features.Offline Working
One of the most important benefits of Git is that it supports offline working. If we are facing internet connectivity issues, it will not affect our work. In Git, we can do almost everything locally. Comparatively, other CVSs like SVN is limited and prefer the connection with the central repository.Undo Mistakes
One additional benefit of Git is we can Undo mistakes. Sometimes the undo can be a savior option for us. Git provides the undo option for almost everything.Track the Changes
Git facilitates with some exciting features such as Diff, Log, and Status, which allows us to track changes so we can check the status, and compare our files or branches.Git and GitHub are not the same...
Git is the most commonly used version control system (VCS). Git tracks the changes you made to the files, so you have a record of what changes you made, and you can revert to specific versions whenever you need it.
GitHub is a website that manages projects that use Git. You do not need GitHub to use Git, but you cannot use GitHub without using Git. There are many other alternatives to GitHub, such as GitLab, Bitbucket, etc.
Why Git?
We have discussed many features and benefits of Git that demonstrate the undoubtedly Git as the leading version control system. Now, we will discuss some other points about why should we choose Git.
- It is free
- It is open-source
- It is super fast
- Scalable
- Cheap branching/merging
Operations like Branching and merging are slow and painful, in other Version Control Systems like Subversion or TFS. But, they are very fast in Git.
So, Git is almost everywhere. More than 90% of Software Projects in the world use Git. That is why almost all job descriptions for software developers mention Git.
So, if you are looking for a job as a software developer, Git is one of the skills you must have on your resume. You should know it inside out, you should know how it works, and how to use it to track your project history and collaborate with others effectively.