git is where it’s at.

It’s fast. Ridiculously flexible. Borderline life changing tool for any developer.

Here’s one example of git awesomeness.

When adding a new experimental feature:

Create a new branch to work in

git checkout -b awesome-new-feature

… Write some code or something …

Stage the files (-a) for a commit and commit them to your branch.  (This step probably needs to happen multiple times, I’d suggest git-cola)

git commit -a -m “Added the finishing touches to the awesome new feature’s model”

Switch back to the main branch.

git checkout master

Merge the new feature into the main codebase.

git merge awesome-new-feature

The flexibility of being a distributed version control system lets you clone your work onto your laptop and work anywhere, without relying on wifi being available and stable.

Checkout some more in-depth git workflow examples:

A Git Workflow for Agile Teams

git is really “a tool for designing VCS workflows” rather than a Version Control System itself

git: fetch and merge, don’t pull

The problem with git pull is that it has all kinds of helpful magic that means you don’t really have to learn about the different types of branch in git.