What is Git & Why Should You Use It? | Git VS Github
24 July 2023As a student or curious learner, many times you hear this word from many people that Git tools are so helpful in corporate work, and on average, 70% of developers use Git tools to make their workflow easier. Now you have many questions in your mind about what Git and why we use Git and whether it is similar to Github or maybe it is different from Github. In this tutorial we are going to discuss all those types of your queries in detail.
Before discussing on Git you have basic knowledge about VCS.
What is Version Control System
VCS is abbreviated as Version Control System. It is a collection of various software tools that helps professionals to record the changes that have been made to the respective documents and files by tracking the modifications made to the program code. In simple words, software programs or applications are made by a group of developers or team of developers where some are working on the front end and some are at the backend. All of them make some contributions to the software code and keep making some changes and it is very important that changes are shared by all developers. So this helps in improving the management and efficiency while developing the software. It can all be done through VCS tools.
What is Git
According to its official definition, “Git is the most commonly used version control system” & helps us to keep track of code changes. Any developer who has worked on a project with multiple team members knows the importance of version control. When more than one person is working on a codebase, it’s essential to have a way to track changes and ensure that everyone is working of the same version of the code. It is a distributed version control system (DVCS) for tracking changes to files. Git development started in 2005 for the development of Linux Kernal. The original author of Git is Linus Torvalds and it was developed by Junio Hamano and others. Git is free and open source software shared under the GPL -2.0-only license. Git has the functionality, performance, security and flexibility that most teams and individual developers need. Git is the foundation of many services like GitHub and GitLab, but we can use Git without using any other Git services. Git can be used privately and publicly. Git is easy to learn, and has fast performance. It is superior to other SCM tools like Subversion, CVS, Perforce, and ClearCase.
Git VS Github
In today’s world, because of the similarity of names, we assume that these are the same things with multiple names but we are wrong. Many people have their perspective that Java and JavaScript are the same programming language. So, that’s why Git and Github are also similar, but the reality is not like what we hear. Git is a version control system, while Github is a web-based hosting service for Git repositories. In simple words, we can use Git without Github, but we cannot use Github without using Git tools. Github is so popular. As of 2022, Github has more than 80 million users and 200 million repositories.
Why we use GIT ?
Mainly it helps a lot to group of developers work collaboratively on big software projects. In Git we create files and a set of files is known as repository. Git has been re-purposed by the data science community. In addition to using it for source code, we use it to manage the motley collection of files that make up typical data analytical projects, which often consist of data, figures, reports, and, yes, source code. A solo data analyst, working on a single computer, will benefit from adopting version control. But not nearly enough to justify the pain of installation and workflow upheaval. There are much easier ways to get versioned back ups of your files, if that’s all you’re worried about.
Major reasons to use GIT
- Cloud repositories
- Distributed file system
- Perfect to work with others
- Good documentation
- Easy to use
- Branches allow for simultaneous code version
- Encourage code reviews
- Easy to revert your mistake
- It’s the current de facto open-source umbrella
- Connectivity to cloud services
Basic Git Commands
We can use git in many different ways. Git supports many command-line tools and graphical user interfaces. The Git command line is the only place where you can run all the Git commands.
Here is a list of most essential Git commands that are used daily.
- Git Config Command
- Git init command
- Git Clone command
- Git add command
- Git commit command
- Git status command
- Git push command
- Git pull command
- Git Branch command
- Git Merge command
- Git log command
- Git remote command
These are the basic commands which are used by the developers in daily basis. If you like this post probably you might like my next ones, so please support me by subscribing my blog.
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Hey there, I’m Anshul Pal, a tech blogger and Computer Science graduate. I’m passionate about exploring tech-related topics and sharing the knowledge I’ve acquired. With two years of industry expertise in blogging and content writing, I’m also the co-founder of HVM Smart Solution. Thanks for reading my blog – Happy Learning!
