Basic git Commands
Documentation
After installation of the "git-core" package, you will find the
git
related documentation in the
/usr/share/doc/git-core-<version>/
directory on your system. Make sure to read at least the
"tutorial.txt" file!
Terminology
- "internal branches":
- = heads.
The content of the ".git/refs/heads/foo" file is the SHA1
object name of the commit that is at the top of "foo" branch.
When your ".git/HEAD" symlink points at "refs/heads/bar", your
working tree is said to be on the "bar" branch.
- "external branches":
- = other repositories
- "head":
- = sometimes used to make clear that it's a branch internal to one repo
What happens normally (at least for core git) is that the
".git/branches"
directory contains external sources for the branches
(for example, a
"git clone" will fill in the "origin" source,
while I often have a
".git/branches/parent" in my tree because. That is just a pointer to
where the external branch exists.)
Then, when you do something like
git fetch parent
it will look up the source of "parent" by looking in the
".git/branches/parent" file, and update the
".git/refs/heads/parent"
branch appropriately from that external branch.
So in this example the parent
"head" ("local branch") points to the actual
commit we have, while the
".git/branches/parent" thing points to what
external branch it came from.
But yes, you
can mess this up if you want to. If you have the same
"external branch" name that you use for an "internal branch", you deserve
all the confusion you get
Working with branches
