Git Best Practices

 Git Best Practices (Summary)

• Commit Frequently

Make small, regular commits to keep your work organized and easier to track.

• Write Descriptive Commit Messages

Clearly explain what each commit changes and why—it helps you and your team understand the project history.

• Work with Branches

Use separate branches for new features, bug fixes, or experiments. This keeps your main branch stable.

• Pull Before You Push

Always fetch and merge the latest changes from the remote repository before pushing your own commits to avoid conflicts.

• Review Before Committing

Double-check your changes to make sure you’re committing only what’s necessary and nothing unintended.

• Keep Repositories Lean

Avoid adding large files or unnecessary data; it keeps the repository faster and easier to manage.

• Use .gitignore

Exclude files and folders that shouldn’t be tracked (like temporary files, build artifacts, or local configs).

• Tag Important Releases

Tag stable points in your history (like production releases) so they’re easy to find later.

Commit Often

Make small, frequent commits to capture each meaningful change you make.

This helps you:

• Track your progress step by step
• Identify where bugs were introduced more easily

Example:

git add .

git commit -m "Add user authentication logic"

Write Clear Commit Messages

Describe why a change was made, not just what changed.

Good commit messages make the project history easy to read and understand.

Tips:

Be specific and meaningful: avoid messages like Update or Fix

Use the imperative mood: write as if you’re giving a command, e.g., Add login validation instead of Added login validation

Example:

git commit -m "Fix bug in user login validation"

Use Branches

Always use branches to develop features, fix bugs, or experiment.

This keeps your main branch (like main or master) clean and stable.

Why use branches?

• Develop and test without affecting production-ready code
• Make collaboration easier and safer

Tip:

 Name your branches clearly and consistently:

• feature/login-form
• bugfix/user-auth

Example:

git checkout -b feature/login-form

Pull Before You Push

Run git pull before pushing your changes.

This fetches and merges any updates from the remote branch into your local branch, helping to prevent conflicts and making sure your push goes through smoothly.

Example:

git pull origin main
git push origin main
Review Changes Before Committing
Check what has changed before you commit.
This helps catch errors and ensures you only commit what you intend to.

git status   # See which files are changed or staged
git diff     # See the actual changes made

Keep Repositories Small

Don’t add large files or unnecessary libraries to your repository.
Smaller repositories are faster to clone and easier to manage.

Tip:

 Use Git LFS (Large File Storage) to handle big assets like videos, datasets, or binary files instead of tracking them directly.

Use .gitignore

List files and directories you don’t want Git to track—such as build artifacts, log files, and sensitive data—in a .gitignore file.

This keeps your repository clean and avoids accidentally committing unnecessary or private files.

Example:

plaintext

# Ignore build output

/dist

/build

# Ignore logs

*.log

# Ignore secrets

.env

Tag Releases

Use tags to mark important release points (for example, v1.0).

Tags help you track your project's history and make it easier to return to a specific version when needed.

Example:

# Create a tag named v1.0

git tag v1.0

# Push the tag to the remote repository

git push origin v1.0