The git init Command and the First Commit

In this chapter, we’ll learn to do the following:

• We’ll install and init a Git repository.
• We’ll commit the changes as snapshots into the repository.
• We’ll write helpful commit messages.
• We’ll view the status of the current changes.
• We’ll view the history log of the commit snapshots.

In this lesson, we’ll learn the fundamental commands to control a project folder with Git. Then, we’ll make changes to the project files and save the snapshots into the Git repository.

Project initialization

1. Create a folder for the project and name it SampleProject.

   $ mkdir SampleProject
   

2. Create some files inside the project folder.

   $ cd SampleProject
   $ touch file1.txt
   

3. Run the git init command, which initializes the current folder as a Git-controlled repository.

   $ git init
   

4. Run the git add . command to mark the files to be version controlled. The names of the files to be added to the Git repository come after the git add command. The . means adding all files in the current directory.

   $ git add .
   

5. Run git status to preview the commit.

   $ git status
   

6. Run the following git commit command to commit the marked files into the repository. This step saves the changes as a snapshot.

   $ git commit -m "First commit."
   

Note: As a beginner, it’s easy to forget the commit message. The git commit command requires the message to exist, but sometimes beginners try to avoid it by using -m "". This leads to rejection from Git with the message “Aborting commit due to empty commit message.”

Further steps

By using the add and commit commands, we can make changes to our files or source code. When we need a snapshot, we can git add the changed files and git commit them into the version-controlled repository.

Practice the following commands in the terminal given below:

1. Create a folder.

   $ mkdir SampleProject
   

2. Create some files.

   $ cd SampleProject
   $ touch file1.txt
   

3. Run the git init command.

   $ git init
   

4. Run the git add . command.

   $ git add .
   

5. Run the git status command.

   $ git status
   

6. Run the following git commit command.

   $ git commit -m "First commit."