Typical Git workflow

Download and install Git

In Linux distributions that’s usually just yum install git or apt-get install git. See GitHub guides if you’re on Windows or Mac.

Cloning repository

Go to the folder which will contain the clone, then type:

git clone git://github.com/bard/sameplace.git

Create your own local branch

Creating a local branch lets you make changes, compare with main branch, and generate patches.

To create the branch:

git branch fix_for_foobar

To switch to it:

git checkout fix_for_foobar

Making changes

When you’re satisfied with the changes, you’ll want to commit them to your local branch. Keep in mind that, differently than SVN or CVS, “committing” doesn’t mean copying stuff from your working copy to the central repository, instead you’ll be copying stuff from your working copy to a branch in your local repository. We’ll see later how to get that into the remote repository too.

To commit changes to local branch:

git commit -a -m 'Join Room Dialog: foobar functionality was broken.  Fixed.'

Preparing the patch

First, you’ll want to make sure that you’ll be producing a patch against the most recent version of the central repository, so switch to the master branch and update it:

git checkout master
git pull

Next, tell git to apply your local commits on top of the renewed master:

git rebase fix_for_foobar

Finally, create the patch. A file with the name derived from the commit message will be created:

git format-patch origin