Terminologies in Git

Git is a tool that covered vast terminology and jargon, which can often be difficult for new users or learners. Let's have a look at the commonly used terms. Git covers a wide range of terminologies and jargon which might often be different for new users. From beginners to advanced Git users, there is a need for reference and to understand the simple and complex mechanisms. Let's take a sneak peek at the commonly used terms associated with Git commands.

Workflow refers to the continuity in the development procedure along with a contribution to the workspace that is commonly shared among the team. Git enables centralized workflow offering tremendous growth of projects being developed in the same workplace without any worry of maintaining source codes and files.

It also synchronously merges the changes that have to be tested on the other person's code. If the developers are already comfortable with subversion, centralized workflow lets the users experience the benefits of Git without having to adapt to an entirely new process. It also serves as a friendly transition into more Git-oriented workflows.

Let's take a sneak peek at the commonly used terms associated with Git.

Clone

Clone is used to generate a copy of the target repository or clone it. If a user wants to fetch the exact repository of the other user, the git clone provides a command-line utility to create a local copy of that repository on our local system by generating the repository URL.

Branch

The branch is an essential feature available in Git that is used to diverge the users from the main working project. It is essentially available in most modern version control systems. We can create multiple branches of our project using the branch repository version. The operations that can be conveniently performed on Git- branch are list, delete, rename, etc.

Checkout

This terminology of Git enables its users to check out the versions of the target entity by switching between different versions. It is primarily used for switching between branches in the Git repository.

Fetch

Fetch is used to get the tags and branches from one or more than one repositories. It is used to update remote-tracking branches along with the objects that are necessary to complete the history.

Master

It is the default branch of Git that is used for naming conventions of Git branches. When a user clones a repository from a remote server, the copy of the original repository has only a single branch. This branch is a default branch is known as the "master" branch.

Origin

As the name suggests, origin in Git terminology is the reference of the cloned repository from any end. It is primarily used for referencing the cloned repository through the origin from where it was cloned.

Pull Request

Whenever a user wants to pull data from Github, it is known to the owner of the repository that a pull request is being sought. To do this, the owner fetches and merges the other user's working repository through the remote server.

Push

The term Push in Git refers to upload local repository files to a remotely accessible repository. Pushing is an act that transfers commits or changes that have been made in the local repository to the remote repository. Version control system Git can overwrite changes. This act is recommended to be carried out with caution since the commits may sometimes result in unknown errors.

Remote

In Git, a remote is closely associated with the origin while sharing a repository to a common workspace. It is generally a shared repository that is used by all the members associated and capable of making changes. Therefore, a remote repository is shared and hosted on the platforms like Github, BitBucket, Git Labs, etc. If the repository is local, the remote server is incapable of providing the services and the user may do it by him through the .git versioning data.

Git Fork

Forking in version controls systems is an act of keeping a bookmark of any user's repository. The original user's repository can also be made a local repository by other users if the repository is public. It may only be forked if the owner of the original repository being forked restricts making a local repository. Therefore, forking allows the users to freely test and debug the files without affecting the original repository. Commits and bug fixing can be done using the following steps:

Fork the original repository.
Mark the changes wherever needed.
Make an issue or create a pull request to the owner to merge the changes if he finds it good to go.