What is Git and Why Is It Used? Easy Introduction with Full Form, History, All Versions

Git is an open and free distributed version management system that can handle small to extremely big projects quickly and efficiently. It was developed in 2005 by Linus Torvalds and many others for Linux kernel development. 

Git Full Form

The full form of Git is Global Information Tracker.

The Git model is based on the concept of a content-addressable file system, which allows multiple developers working on the same codebase to call their own private "stashes" or "branches" without stepping on each other's toes. 

Git is an easy-to-use DVCS (distributed version control system) that you can install on your local machine, which hardly takes 5 minutes to set up.

Git is a type of revision control system. Unlike other revision control systems, Git was designed to handle very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is fast because it has a local cache of repositories, which stores the history of changes you've made in your working directory. It reduces traffic between the server and your computer.

Now that you have a better idea of what is Git and why it is used. Let’s now move to the history of Git to know who founded it, when was it founded, and different Git versions.

Who Created Git?

Git was invented or created by Linus Torvalds.

When Was Git Founded?

Git was founded in 2005.

What Was Git Created?

Linus Torvalds needed a new version control system to keep the Linux Kernel development going. So he took a week off to write a revolutionary new system from the ground up, which he named Git. After fifteen years, the platform is still the clear leader in a crowded field.

A significant number of start-ups, cooperatives, and businesses all around the globe, including Google and Microsoft, use Git to preserve the code of software projects.

More About History of Git

The fact that Git is open source adds to its popularity (like Linux and Android). However, there are other open-source VCSs, such as Concurrent Versions Systems (CVS), Subversion (SVN), Mercurial, and Monotone. Thus, its popularity cannot be attributed to that alone.

Businesses and developers also use commercial hosting platforms such as GitHub     (established in 2007), Bitbucket (formed in 2010), and GitLab to host their Git projects (founded in 2011). 

GitHub, the largest of these, has 40 million registered developers and was purchased by Microsoft in 2018 for a whopping $7.5 billion.

Let’s know about all the versions of Git released to date since its inception.

Git is an open-source version control system. When you use it, you will keep track of any changes that are made to the files in your project. This can be a really useful thing because it's possible to revert back to earlier versions of your code if needed (which is called branching).

You can manage your repositories on the Command Line with some commands. These commands are usually very short—for example, "Git add" will add all of the changes in the working directory to the current branch.

Here's a list of some of the most commonly used Git commands:

1. Git config command

The user is configured using this command. On the Git command line, the config command is the first and most important command. This command configures the author name and email address for your commits.

2. Git Init command

To make a local repository, you can use this command. The init command creates a new repository with no content.

3. Git clone command

This command creates a repository copy from an existing URL. If you wish to create a local clone of my GitHub repository, you can use this command to do so.

4. Git status command

The status command displays information about the working directory and staging area. It lets you view which changes have been staged, which haven't, and which files Git isn't tracking. 

There is no information about the committed project history displayed. You'll need to use the Git log for this. It also shows which files you've modified and which you need to add or commit. 

5. Git push command

It is used to upload material from a local repository to a remote repository. For example, transfer commits from your local storage to a remote repository by pushing. 

It's similar to Git fetch, except that instead of importing commits to local branches, pushing exports to remote units. To set up a Git remote, use the Git command.

Moving has the potential to overwrite modifications, so proceed with caution.

There are other such Git commands like Git add, Git branch command, Git merge knowledge, etc.