NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | THE GIT OBJECT DATABASE | THE INDEX FILE | WHAT NEXT? | SEE ALSO | GIT | NOTES | COLOPHON

GITTUTORIAL-2(7)                 Git Manual                 GITTUTORIAL-2(7)

NAME         top

       gittutorial-2 - A tutorial introduction to Git: part two

SYNOPSIS         top

       git *

DESCRIPTION         top

       You should work through gittutorial(7) before reading this tutorial.
       The goal of this tutorial is to introduce two fundamental pieces of
       Git’s architecture—the object database and the index file—and to
       provide the reader with everything necessary to understand the rest
       of the Git documentation.

THE GIT OBJECT DATABASE         top

       Let’s start a new project and create a small amount of history:
           $ mkdir test-project
           $ cd test-project
           $ git init
           Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
           $ echo 'hello world' > file.txt
           $ git add .
           $ git commit -a -m "initial commit"
           [master (root-commit) 54196cc] initial commit
            1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
            create mode 100644 file.txt
           $ echo 'hello world!' >file.txt
           $ git commit -a -m "add emphasis"
           [master c4d59f3] add emphasis
            1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
       What are the 7 digits of hex that Git responded to the commit with?
       We saw in part one of the tutorial that commits have names like this.
       It turns out that every object in the Git history is stored under a
       40-digit hex name. That name is the SHA-1 hash of the object’s
       contents; among other things, this ensures that Git will never store
       the same data twice (since identical data is given an identical SHA-1
       name), and that the contents of a Git object will never change (since
       that would change the object’s name as well). The 7 char hex strings
       here are simply the abbreviation of such 40 character long strings.
       Abbreviations can be used everywhere where the 40 character strings
       can be used, so long as they are unambiguous.
       It is expected that the content of the commit object you created
       while following the example above generates a different SHA-1 hash
       than the one shown above because the commit object records the time
       when it was created and the name of the person performing the commit.
       We can ask Git about this particular object with the cat-file
       command. Don’t copy the 40 hex digits from this example but use those
       from your own version. Note that you can shorten it to only a few
       characters to save yourself typing all 40 hex digits:
           $ git cat-file -t 54196cc2
           commit
           $ git cat-file commit 54196cc2
           tree 92b8b694ffb1675e5975148e1121810081dbdffe
           author J. Bruce Fields <bfields@puzzle.fieldses.org> 1143414668 -0500
           committer J. Bruce Fields <bfields@puzzle.fieldses.org> 1143414668 -0500
           initial commit
       A tree can refer to one or more "blob" objects, each corresponding to
       a file. In addition, a tree can also refer to other tree objects,
       thus creating a directory hierarchy. You can examine the contents of
       any tree using ls-tree (remember that a long enough initial portion
       of the SHA-1 will also work):
           $ git ls-tree 92b8b694
           100644 blob 3b18e512dba79e4c8300dd08aeb37f8e728b8dad    file.txt
       Thus we see that this tree has one file in it. The SHA-1 hash is a
       reference to that file’s data:
           $ git cat-file -t 3b18e512
           blob
       A "blob" is just file data, which we can also examine with cat-file:
           $ git cat-file blob 3b18e512
           hello world
       Note that this is the old file data; so the object that Git named in
       its response to the initial tree was a tree with a snapshot of the
       directory state that was recorded by the first commit.
       All of these objects are stored under their SHA-1 names inside the
       Git directory:
           $ find .git/objects/
           .git/objects/
           .git/objects/pack
           .git/objects/info
           .git/objects/3b
           .git/objects/3b/18e512dba79e4c8300dd08aeb37f8e728b8dad
           .git/objects/92
           .git/objects/92/b8b694ffb1675e5975148e1121810081dbdffe
           .git/objects/54
           .git/objects/54/196cc2703dc165cbd373a65a4dcf22d50ae7f7
           .git/objects/a0
           .git/objects/a0/423896973644771497bdc03eb99d5281615b51
           .git/objects/d0
           .git/objects/d0/492b368b66bdabf2ac1fd8c92b39d3db916e59
           .git/objects/c4
           .git/objects/c4/d59f390b9cfd4318117afde11d601c1085f241
       and the contents of these files is just the compressed data plus a
       header identifying their length and their type. The type is either a
       blob, a tree, a commit, or a tag.
       The simplest commit to find is the HEAD commit, which we can find
       from .git/HEAD:
           $ cat .git/HEAD
           ref: refs/heads/master
       As you can see, this tells us which branch we’re currently on, and it
       tells us this by naming a file under the .git directory, which itself
       contains a SHA-1 name referring to a commit object, which we can
       examine with cat-file:
           $ cat .git/refs/heads/master
           c4d59f390b9cfd4318117afde11d601c1085f241
           $ git cat-file -t c4d59f39
           commit
           $ git cat-file commit c4d59f39
           tree d0492b368b66bdabf2ac1fd8c92b39d3db916e59
           parent 54196cc2703dc165cbd373a65a4dcf22d50ae7f7
           author J. Bruce Fields <bfields@puzzle.fieldses.org> 1143418702 -0500
           committer J. Bruce Fields <bfields@puzzle.fieldses.org> 1143418702 -0500
           add emphasis
       The "tree" object here refers to the new state of the tree:
           $ git ls-tree d0492b36
           100644 blob a0423896973644771497bdc03eb99d5281615b51    file.txt
           $ git cat-file blob a0423896
           hello world!
       and the "parent" object refers to the previous commit:
           $ git cat-file commit 54196cc2
           tree 92b8b694ffb1675e5975148e1121810081dbdffe
           author J. Bruce Fields <bfields@puzzle.fieldses.org> 1143414668 -0500
           committer J. Bruce Fields <bfields@puzzle.fieldses.org> 1143414668 -0500
           initial commit
       The tree object is the tree we examined first, and this commit is
       unusual in that it lacks any parent.
       Most commits have only one parent, but it is also common for a commit
       to have multiple parents. In that case the commit represents a merge,
       with the parent references pointing to the heads of the merged
       branches.
       Besides blobs, trees, and commits, the only remaining type of object
       is a "tag", which we won’t discuss here; refer to git-tag(1) for
       details.
       So now we know how Git uses the object database to represent a
       project’s history:
       ·   "commit" objects refer to "tree" objects representing the
           snapshot of a directory tree at a particular point in the
           history, and refer to "parent" commits to show how they’re
           connected into the project history.
       ·   "tree" objects represent the state of a single directory,
           associating directory names to "blob" objects containing file
           data and "tree" objects containing subdirectory information.
       ·   "blob" objects contain file data without any other structure.
       ·   References to commit objects at the head of each branch are
           stored in files under .git/refs/heads/.
       ·   The name of the current branch is stored in .git/HEAD.
       Note, by the way, that lots of commands take a tree as an argument.
       But as we can see above, a tree can be referred to in many different
       ways—by the SHA-1 name for that tree, by the name of a commit that
       refers to the tree, by the name of a branch whose head refers to that
       tree, etc.--and most such commands can accept any of these names.
       In command synopses, the word "tree-ish" is sometimes used to
       designate such an argument.

THE INDEX FILE         top

       The primary tool we’ve been using to create commits is git-commit -a,
       which creates a commit including every change you’ve made to your
       working tree. But what if you want to commit changes only to certain
       files? Or only certain changes to certain files?
       If we look at the way commits are created under the cover, we’ll see
       that there are more flexible ways creating commits.
       Continuing with our test-project, let’s modify file.txt again:
           $ echo "hello world, again" >>file.txt
       but this time instead of immediately making the commit, let’s take an
       intermediate step, and ask for diffs along the way to keep track of
       what’s happening:
           $ git diff
           --- a/file.txt
           +++ b/file.txt
           @@ -1 +1,2 @@
            hello world!
           +hello world, again
           $ git add file.txt
           $ git diff
       The last diff is empty, but no new commits have been made, and the
       head still doesn’t contain the new line:
           $ git diff HEAD
           diff --git a/file.txt b/file.txt
           index a042389..513feba 100644
           --- a/file.txt
           +++ b/file.txt
           @@ -1 +1,2 @@
            hello world!
           +hello world, again
       So git diff is comparing against something other than the head. The
       thing that it’s comparing against is actually the index file, which
       is stored in .git/index in a binary format, but whose contents we can
       examine with ls-files:
           $ git ls-files --stage
           100644 513feba2e53ebbd2532419ded848ba19de88ba00 0       file.txt
           $ git cat-file -t 513feba2
           blob
           $ git cat-file blob 513feba2
           hello world!
           hello world, again
       So what our git add did was store a new blob and then put a reference
       to it in the index file. If we modify the file again, we’ll see that
       the new modifications are reflected in the git diff output:
           $ echo 'again?' >>file.txt
           $ git diff
           index 513feba..ba3da7b 100644
           --- a/file.txt
           +++ b/file.txt
           @@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
            hello world!
            hello world, again
           +again?
       With the right arguments, git diff can also show us the difference
       between the working directory and the last commit, or between the
       index and the last commit:
           $ git diff HEAD
           diff --git a/file.txt b/file.txt
           index a042389..ba3da7b 100644
           --- a/file.txt
           +++ b/file.txt
           @@ -1 +1,3 @@
            hello world!
           +hello world, again
           +again?
           $ git diff --cached
           diff --git a/file.txt b/file.txt
           index a042389..513feba 100644
           --- a/file.txt
           +++ b/file.txt
           @@ -1 +1,2 @@
            hello world!
           +hello world, again
       At any time, we can create a new commit using git commit (without the
       "-a" option), and verify that the state committed only includes the
       changes stored in the index file, not the additional change that is
       still only in our working tree:
           $ git commit -m "repeat"
           $ git diff HEAD
           diff --git a/file.txt b/file.txt
           index 513feba..ba3da7b 100644
           --- a/file.txt
           +++ b/file.txt
           @@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
            hello world!
            hello world, again
           +again?
       So by default git commit uses the index to create the commit, not the
       working tree; the "-a" option to commit tells it to first update the
       index with all changes in the working tree.
       Finally, it’s worth looking at the effect of git add on the index
       file:
           $ echo "goodbye, world" >closing.txt
           $ git add closing.txt
       The effect of the git add was to add one entry to the index file:
           $ git ls-files --stage
           100644 8b9743b20d4b15be3955fc8d5cd2b09cd2336138 0       closing.txt
           100644 513feba2e53ebbd2532419ded848ba19de88ba00 0       file.txt
       And, as you can see with cat-file, this new entry refers to the
       current contents of the file:
           $ git cat-file blob 8b9743b2
           goodbye, world
       The "status" command is a useful way to get a quick summary of the
       situation:
           $ git status
           On branch master
           Changes to be committed:
             (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
                   new file:   closing.txt
           Changes not staged for commit:
             (use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
             (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
                   modified:   file.txt
       Since the current state of closing.txt is cached in the index file,
       it is listed as "Changes to be committed". Since file.txt has changes
       in the working directory that aren’t reflected in the index, it is
       marked "changed but not updated". At this point, running "git commit"
       would create a commit that added closing.txt (with its new contents),
       but that didn’t modify file.txt.
       Also, note that a bare git diff shows the changes to file.txt, but
       not the addition of closing.txt, because the version of closing.txt
       in the index file is identical to the one in the working directory.
       In addition to being the staging area for new commits, the index file
       is also populated from the object database when checking out a
       branch, and is used to hold the trees involved in a merge operation.
       See gitcore-tutorial(7) and the relevant man pages for details.

WHAT NEXT?         top

       At this point you should know everything necessary to read the man
       pages for any of the git commands; one good place to start would be
       with the commands mentioned in giteveryday(7). You should be able to
       find any unknown jargon in gitglossary(7).
       The Git User’s Manual[1] provides a more comprehensive introduction
       to Git.
       gitcvs-migration(7) explains how to import a CVS repository into Git,
       and shows how to use Git in a CVS-like way.
       For some interesting examples of Git use, see the howtos[2].
       For Git developers, gitcore-tutorial(7) goes into detail on the
       lower-level Git mechanisms involved in, for example, creating a new
       commit.

SEE ALSO         top

       gittutorial(7), gitcvs-migration(7), gitcore-tutorial(7),
       gitglossary(7), git-help(1), giteveryday(7), The Git User’s Manual[1]

GIT         top

       Part of the git(1) suite

NOTES         top

        1. Git User’s Manual
           file:///usr/local/share/doc/git/user-manual.html
        2. howtos
           file:///usr/local/share/doc/git/howto-index.html

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the git (Git distributed version control system)
       project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://git-scm.com/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this manual page,
       see ⟨http://git-scm.com/community⟩.  This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository ⟨https://github.com/git/git.git⟩ on
       2017-07-05.  If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML ver‐
       sion of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date
       source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the
       information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original man‐
       ual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
Git 2.12.0.rc2                   02/18/2017                 GITTUTORIAL-2(7)

Pages that refer to this page: git(1)gitcore-tutorial(7)gitcvs-migration(7)gitglossary(7)gittutorial(7)