What is git?

• a fast version control system
   
• free and open source
   
• used to host files on popular platform GitHub

What is version control

• a way to record changes made to file(s) so you can recall them later
   
• allows you to collaborate and share without overwriting changes
   
• serves as an additional easy to read record of development

basic git workflow

• you make changes to your file(s)
   
• you choose what changes you want to add
   
• you commit those changes and store them permanently in your repository
   
• (optional-but-should-be-required) you send all changes in your local repository to a backup or central repository available in the cloud, every once in a while

basic git vocabulary

• repository - a data structure that stores information about your project or set of files
   
• bare repository - a storage facility where you store information but can't change or edit it (excellent for just sharing)
   
• commit - a saved version of the project with certain new changes deemed 'safe'
   
• remote - a bookmark to a connected repository you send information to
   
• push - transferring commits to a connected repository (using a remote)

deployment workflow

• commit changes to your local repository
   
• push all changes to a bare repository on your server (server must have git installed)
   
• see changes on staging site immediately!

Step 1:

initialize local repository

git init

Step 2:

create bare repository

• ensure your server has git installed and then log into your server (on the command line)
• never used the command line? Here's a quick tutorial

# set up your information on the server if you haven't 
# already
git config --global user.name "Aurooba Ahmed"
git config --global user.email typeyour@email.com

# create a directory that will house all your bare repos
mkdir theme-gitrepos
cd theme-gitrepos
# create directory to hold bare repo for theme called Mint
mkdir mint-repo 
# create bare repository
cd mint-repo
git init --bare

STEP 3:

Send changes to theme folder

• we want all changes to be reflected in wp-content/your-theme
• git hooks - custom scripts that fire when specific actions occur
• post-update - a script that fires after the repo is updated

cd hooks
vim post-update

#!/bin/sh
export GIT_WORK_TREE=../../path/to/your/live/files
git checkout -f

STEP 4:

give hooks folder permission to fire

chmod ug+x hooks/*

STEP 5:

connect local repo to bare repo

git remote add staging username@server.com:your/path/to/repo

then when you want to push your commits to the bare repo:

git push staging