Using Git as a VCS

Software Engineering & VCS

Version control is always a very essential part of SE. But in practice, people always keep forgetting the principles and tips given by their college teachers or the reference books, making their repository a piece of mess, which is definitely no good. It is very easy to make things messy but not the other way around. So as professional developers, we must develop a good habit of using VCSs such as Git.

Here are some tips when using Git, thanks to Professor Armando Fox:

1. Creating a branch is free, and it can largely help you keep your repo clean. So create a new branch for every single one of your new features, which is called - branch per feature.
   • Use branch only for changes needed for that feature. No other stuff.
2. Make sure Master is always good for deployment.
   • Develop from feature branches and deploy from Master.
3. Always use a Pull Request as code reviews to push your code to Master, don’t use git merge.
   • At Google, no code gets checked in unless at least 1 person reviews it, even if review is just to say “Looks good to me” (LGTM).

NOTE: Some people get confused why Pull Request is called so instead of Push Request. This is because Pull Request is asking Master to pull/accept your code - “Please pull my code to origin.” And if you use Push Request, it should be Master asking you to push your code.

PostScript

Frankly speaking, I’ve been using Github Desktop, and found it very easy to use. The problem is that there’s always someone saying that using a GUI is not very programmeric(yes, I made this up), which makes me kind of awkward.

So, I decide to become a “real programmer” from now on, how about cutting the mouse wire and cracking the touchpad?

So, the following commands are life skills of a real programmer and you can easily get all of them by simply typing git in your command line:

git help   	# Help! Help!

git init     	# Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one
git clone 	# Clone a repository into a new directory
git remote  	# Configure the remote settings 

git add 	# Add file contents to the index
git rm  	# Remove files from the working tree and from the index

git diff	# Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
git status 	# Show the working tree status
git commit	# Record changes to the repository. You can also add [-m "commit messages"] to it
git push     	# Update remote refs along with associated objects
git pull       	# Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch

git branch 	# List, create, or delete branches
git checkout	# Switch branches or restore working tree files
git merge      	# Join two or more development histories together
git tag        	# Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG