Git Basics

Example: File Status Workflow

The following example shows how a file moves through different Git states.


git init

Output:


Initialized empty Git repository in /path/to/project/.git/


touch example.txt

Check the repository status:


git status

Output:


On branch main
 
No commits yet
 
Untracked files:
  example.txt

The file is currently untracked.


git add example.txt

Check the status again:


git status

Output:


Changes to be committed:
  new file: example.txt

The file is now staged.


git commit -m "My first commit"

Example output:


[main (root-commit) 1234567] My first commit
 1 file changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 example.txt

Check the status:


git status

Output:


nothing to commit, working tree clean

The repository is now clean.

Edit the file:


vim example.txt

Check the status again:


git status

Output:


Changes not staged for commit:
  modified: example.txt

The file is now modified but not staged.