1. 1. Getting Started

   1. 1.1 About Version Control
   2. 1.2 A Short History of Git
   3. 1.3 What is Git?
   4. 1.4 The Command Line
   5. 1.5 Installing Git
   6. 1.6 First-Time Git Setup
   7. 1.7 Getting Help
   8. 1.8 Summary

2. 2. Git Basics

   1. 2.1 Getting a Git Repository
   2. 2.2 Recording Changes to the Repository
   3. 2.3 Viewing the Commit History
   4. 2.4 Undoing Things
   5. 2.5 Working with Remotes
   6. 2.6 Tagging
   7. 2.7 Git Aliases
   8. 2.8 Summary

3. 3. Git Branching

   1. 3.1 Branches in a Nutshell
   2. 3.2 Basic Branching and Merging
   3. 3.3 Branch Management
   4. 3.4 Branching Workflows
   5. 3.5 Remote Branches
   6. 3.6 Rebasing
   7. 3.7 Summary

4. 4. Git on the Server

   1. 4.1 The Protocols
   2. 4.2 Getting Git on a Server
   3. 4.3 Generating Your SSH Public Key
   4. 4.4 Setting Up the Server
   5. 4.5 Git Daemon
   6. 4.6 Smart HTTP
   7. 4.7 GitWeb
   8. 4.8 GitLab
   9. 4.9 Third Party Hosted Options
   10. 4.10 Summary

5. 5. Distributed Git

   1. 5.1 Distributed Workflows
   2. 5.2 Contributing to a Project
   3. 5.3 Maintaining a Project
   4. 5.4 Summary

1. 6. GitHub

   1. 6.1 Account Setup and Configuration
   2. 6.2 Contributing to a Project
   3. 6.3 Maintaining a Project
   4. 6.4 Managing an organization
   5. 6.5 Scripting GitHub
   6. 6.6 Summary

2. 7. Git Tools

   1. 7.1 Revision Selection
   2. 7.2 Interactive Staging
   3. 7.3 Stashing and Cleaning
   4. 7.4 Signing Your Work
   5. 7.5 Searching
   6. 7.6 Rewriting History
   7. 7.7 Reset Demystified
   8. 7.8 Advanced Merging
   9. 7.9 Rerere
   10. 7.10 Debugging with Git
   11. 7.11 Submodules
   12. 7.12 Bundling
   13. 7.13 Replace
   14. 7.14 Credential Storage
   15. 7.15 Summary

3. 8. Customizing Git

   1. 8.1 Git Configuration
   2. 8.2 Git Attributes
   3. 8.3 Git Hooks
   4. 8.4 An Example Git-Enforced Policy
   5. 8.5 Summary

4. 9. Git and Other Systems

   1. 9.1 Git as a Client
   2. 9.2 Migrating to Git
   3. 9.3 Summary

5. 10. Git Internals

   1. 10.1 Plumbing and Porcelain
   2. 10.2 Git Objects
   3. 10.3 Git References
   4. 10.4 Packfiles
   5. 10.5 The Refspec
   6. 10.6 Transfer Protocols
   7. 10.7 Maintenance and Data Recovery
   8. 10.8 Environment Variables
   9. 10.9 Summary

1. A1. Appendix A: Git in Other Environments

   1. A1.1 Graphical Interfaces
   2. A1.2 Git in Visual Studio
   3. A1.3 Git in Visual Studio Code
   4. A1.4 Git in IntelliJ / PyCharm / WebStorm / PhpStorm / RubyMine
   5. A1.5 Git in Sublime Text
   6. A1.6 Git in Bash
   7. A1.7 Git in Zsh
   8. A1.8 Git in PowerShell
   9. A1.9 Summary

2. A2. Appendix B: Embedding Git in your Applications

   1. A2.1 Command-line Git
   2. A2.2 Libgit2
   3. A2.3 JGit
   4. A2.4 go-git
   5. A2.5 Dulwich

3. A3. Appendix C: Git Commands

   1. A3.1 Setup and Config
   2. A3.2 Getting and Creating Projects
   3. A3.3 Basic Snapshotting
   4. A3.4 Branching and Merging
   5. A3.5 Sharing and Updating Projects
   6. A3.6 Inspection and Comparison
   7. A3.7 Debugging
   8. A3.8 Patching
   9. A3.9 Email
   10. A3.10 External Systems
   11. A3.11 Administration
   12. A3.12 Plumbing Commands

To take a directory and turn it into a new Git repository so you can start version controlling it, you can simply run git init.

We first introduce this in Getting a Git Repository, where we show creating a brand new repository to start working with.

We talk briefly about how you can change the default branch name from "master" in Remote Branches.

We use this command to create an empty bare repository for a server in Putting the Bare Repository on a Server.

Finally, we go through some of the details of what it actually does behind the scenes in Plumbing and Porcelain.

The git clone command is actually something of a wrapper around several other commands. It creates a new directory, goes into it and runs git init to make it an empty Git repository, adds a remote (git remote add) to the URL that you pass it (by default named origin), runs a git fetch from that remote repository and then checks out the latest commit into your working directory with git checkout.

The git clone command is used in dozens of places throughout the book, but we’ll just list a few interesting places.

It’s basically introduced and explained in Cloning an Existing Repository, where we go through a few examples.

In Getting Git on a Server we look at using the --bare option to create a copy of a Git repository with no working directory.

In Bundling we use it to unbundle a bundled Git repository.

Finally, in Cloning a Project with Submodules we learn the --recurse-submodules option to make cloning a repository with submodules a little simpler.

Though it’s used in many other places through the book, these are the ones that are somewhat unique or where it is used in ways that are a little different.