Git Overview: Strategies For Better Git Development

Overview: What Is Git?

Git is an open source source control popular among many development teams. But there's a lot to Git development. That's why it's important to reference this Git overview — whether you're new to Git or you've been using Git for years.

Consider this your Git overview.

Read along or jump to the section that interests you most:

• How to Use Git: Overview of Commands & More
• How to Get Started With Git
• Git vs. Other Options
• How to Use Other Tools With Git

How to Use Git: Overview of Commands & More

To succeed in Git development, you need to follow the Git best practices. 

Use Git Commands

One of the most important things to do when using Git is to get familiar with basic commands. Using Git commands helps you improve performance and work more efficiently.

Just getting started? Get a Git cheat sheet for basic commands.

Want to go more in-depth? Explore specific Git commands:

• Git shallow clone
• Git rebase vs. merge
• Git aliases
• Git ignore file
• Git hooks
• Git stash
• Git commit

Manage Git at Scale

If you’re managing a team that’s working in Git, there are other best practices you should consider.

In particular, it’s important to figure out how to scale Git — especially if you’re working on enterprise team. It’s also important to consider security and how you’ll lock down Git. (This is especially critical if you’re using native Git.)

Go deeper and learn how to:

• Scale Git for DevOps
• Lock down Git

How to Get Started with Git

Git was developed by Linus Torvalds. It launched in 2005. Anyone can use Git for free, because it’s open source.

All you have to do is:

1. Download (or update) and install it on your operating system.
2. Use git config to configure it for your environment.
3. Get a Git repository (by turning a local directory into a repository or cloning one).
4. Add a file.
5. Create a commit.
6. Create a new branch.

Git is great because developers know it. And because it’s open source, most developers have used it. (Especially if they’re fresh out of school.) And many enterprise teams take advantage of Git projects, particularly for using open source code in proprietary software.

However, there can be some challenges with using native Git.

If you’re working in Git development, consider:

• Git security
• Is Git free?

It's also critical to consider — can you make Git development better, faster, and easier? Check out the webinar below to learn how: 

Git vs. Other Options

Git isn’t the only version control option. There are plenty of reasons to use Git. But there are also good reasons to use other tools — especially if you have complex development challenges.

You might want to consider another solution if you have hardware and software teams who need to collaborate and reuse code and files. Or it could be the case if you’re working at a large scale, with 1,000s of developers and 100s of petabytes of data.

Or you might be using a legacy version control and considering a move to Git development.

Either way, compare Git to your other options:

• Git vs. Perforce
• Git vs. SVN
• Git vs. Mercurial
• Git vs. ClearCase
• Compare Version Control Solutions

How to Use Other Tools With Git

Git on its own is rarely enough. You’ll need to add tools for Git to make it work for your team.

Consider tools for managing:

• Git LFS
• Git code reviews
• Git wikis
• Multiple Git repositories

There are a range of of Git solutions. Some are free, but they often only solve one problem (like Git LFS). Others are more comprehensive tools that can host Git and make your workflows run more smoothly (like Helix TeamHub). These tools add functionality for your Git developers.

But what if you have a Git project you need to bring into the pipeline alongside binary files and digital assets? Then it’s time to look for a next-level Git tool — like Helix4Git from Perforce.