Git Version Control Cookbook

Key Features

• Filled with practical recipes that will teach you how to use the most advanced features of the Git system
• Improve your productivity by learning to work faster, more efficiently, and with more confidence
• Discover tips and tricks that will show you when and how to use the advanced features of Git

Book Description

Starting with the Git data model, you will learn how Git stores files and how it looks at commits. You will then learn how you can recover from mistakes; from committing on the wrong branch to recovering lost commits/files. Next, you will discover how you can force rebase on some branches and use regular Git merge on other branches. You will also learn how to extract information from the repository.

As you progress through this book, you will learn how you can automate the usual Git processes by utilizing the hook system built into Git. The book also covers advanced repository management, including different options to rewrite the history of a Git repository. Finally, you will discover how you can work offline with Git, how to track what is going on behind the scenes, and how to use the stash for different purposes.

What you will learn

• Understand the Git data model and how you can navigate the database with simple commands
• Learn how you can recover lost commits/files
• Discover how you can force rebase on some branches and use regular Git merge on other branches
• Extract metadata from a Git repository
• Familiarize yourself with Git notes
• Discover how you can work offline with Git
• Debug with Git and use various techniques to find the faulty commit

About the Authors

Aske Olsson has worked for Nokia for 6 years, where he was one of the leading forces behind complex tool transformation and renewal projects. Among them was a broad adoption of Git SCM, Gerrit Code Review, and Jenkins CI. Currently, Aske works at Schantz, a company developing advanced IT solutions for the financial sector. He develops and maintains their continuous delivery pipeline.

Rasmus Voss specializes in continuous integration, software releasing, and process automation. His vast knowledge on these areas has been built by a 10-year career in Nokia mobile phones in Copenhagen, Denmark and Beijing, China, where he started optimizing autotesting for the Series 30 platform. Today, Rasmus has his own company VossCon, where he consults with companies on how to make the most of developers and testers by optimizing software releasing, providing visibility in the delivery chain, upgrading the tool chain, automating tedious processes, and training developers. He also holds courses on Git, Gerrit, and Jenkins.

Table of Contents

1. Navigating Git
2. Configuration
3. Branching, Merging, and Options
4. Rebase Regularly and Interactively, and Other Use Cases
5. Storing Additional Information in Your Repository
6. Extracting Data from the Repository
7. Enhancing Your Daily Work with Git Hooks, Aliases, and Scripts
8. Recovering from Mistakes
9. Repository Maintenance
10. Patching and Offline Sharing
11. Git Plumbing and Attributes
12. Tips and Tricks

Aske Olsson

Aske Olsson has more than 10 years of experience in the software industry. With a background as an electrical engineer, he has used every tool available for development, from a soldering iron over Assembly, C, and Java programming to different SCM, build and issuetracking systems.

Aske has worked for Nokia for 6 years, where he was one of the leading forces behind complex tool transformation and renewal projects. Among them was a broad adoption of Git SCM, Gerrit Code Review, and Jenkins CI.

Currently, Aske works at Schantz, a company developing advanced IT solutions for the financial sector. He develops and maintains their continuous delivery pipeline.

Aske is also one of the four founding partners in the software development tools and processes company Switch-Gears ApS, where he helps customers, large and small, increase the maturity and productivity of their software delivery efforts by moving the customers from legacy tools and working modes to modern open source based tools and processes.

Aske has more than 4 years of experience working with Git, and since 2011, he has been teaching Git in regular training sessions, from basic Git to its advanced usage.

Rasmus Voss

Rasmus Voss is specialized in continuous integration, software releasing, and process automation. His vast knowledge on these areas has been built by a 10-year career in Nokia mobile phones in Copenhagen, Denmark and Beijing, China, where he started optimizing autotesting for the Series 30 platform. He later moved to software releasing and became part of the team that upgraded the software delivery chain from an old version control system CM Synergy to Git, incorporating Gerrit for code review and Jenkins for single commit verification, software releasing, and much more. Rasmus spent 2 years in China working for Nokia where he sparred with developers, release managers, test engineers, and leaders to optimize the process so that developers could spend time coding and testers knew what they were testing.

Today, Rasmus has his own company VossCon, where he consults with companies on how to make the most of developers and testers by optimizing software releasing, providing visibility in the delivery chain, upgrading the tool chain, automating tedious processes, and training developers. He also holds courses on Git, Gerrit, and Jenkins.