Quick Guide to Installing and Using Git for Version Control

Installation Check

Run git in the terminal; if the command is not found, Git is not installed and you need to install it.

Identify Linux Distribution

Two methods are shown:

Read cat /etc/redhat-releass – if the output contains "Centos" the system is CentOS/RedHat.

Read cat /etc/issue – if the output shows "Ubuntu" the system is Ubuntu.

Alternatively, test which package manager works: yum -help indicates CentOS, while apt-get help indicates Ubuntu.

Install Git

For Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install git For CentOS: sudo yum install -y git After installation, verify with:

git -v

Basic Configuration

Set the global user name: git config --global user.name "Your Name" Set the global email address: git config --global user.email "[email protected]" Generate an SSH key for GitHub communication: ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]" Copy the resulting id_rsa.pub to your GitHub account.

Clone a repository:

git clone git@server-name:path/repo-name.git

Common Git Commands

Typical workflow commands include:

$ git add <em>filename</em>               # stage changes
$ git commit -m "message"               # commit to local repo
$ git status                              # view repository status
$ git diff <em>filename</em>                # see changes
$ git log                                 # view commit history
$ git reset --hard HEAD^                  # revert to previous commit
$ git reset --hard 1094a                 # revert to a specific commit
$ git reflog                              # record of all commands
$ git checkout -- <em>file</em>               # discard local modifications
$ git rm <em>file</em>                       # delete a tracked file
$ git remote add origin git@server-name:path/repo-name.git
$ git push -u origin master               # first push
$ git push origin master                  # subsequent pushes
$ git pull                                # fetch and merge
$ git branch -a                           # list all branches
$ git branch dev                          # create branch
$ git checkout dev                        # switch branch
$ git merge dev                           # merge branch into current
$ git merge --no-ff -m "msg" dev        # merge with explicit history
$ git branch -d dev                       # delete branch
$ git stash save <em>name</em>               # stash changes
$ git stash pop                           # restore stashed changes
$ git tag <em>tagname</em>                  # create tag on latest commit
$ git push origin <em>tagname</em>           # push tag to remote

The guide provides a step‑by‑step workflow for quickly getting Git up and running on common Linux distributions and using it for everyday version‑control operations.