**Course Title:** Mastering Zend Framework (Laminas): Building Robust Web Applications **Section Title:** Deployment and Continuous Integration **Topic:** Using Git for version control and collaboration **1. Introduction to Git** Git is a version control system that helps developers manage changes to their codebase over time. It's an essential tool for collaborative development, as it allows multiple developers to work on the same codebase without conflicts. Git is widely used in the software industry, and understanding its basics is crucial for engineers working with Zend Framework (Laminas). **Key Concepts:** * **Repository**: A Git repository is where all the files of the project are stored. It's essentially a folder that holds the entire codebase. * **Commit**: A commit is a snapshot of the code at a particular point in time. It's created when a developer makes changes to the code and wants to save those changes for future reference. * **Branch**: A branch is a separate line of development in a repository. It allows developers to work on different features or bug fixes without affecting the main codebase. * **Merge**: Merging is the process of combining two branches into one. It's used to integrate changes from one branch into the main branch. **Setting up Git** To start using Git, you'll need to: 1. Download and install Git from the official Git website: <https://git-scm.com/downloads> 2. Create a new repository by initializing a new Git repository in your project directory: ```bash git init ``` 3. Create a new branch to work on a specific feature or bug fix: ```bash git branch feature/new-feature ``` **Basic Git Commands** Here are some essential Git commands to get you started: * `git status`: Checks the status of your repository, including untracked files and unstaged changes. * `git add <file>`: Stage a file to be committed. * `git commit -m "<message>"`: Commit changes with a meaningful message. * `git log`: Displays a log of all commits made to the repository. * `git branch`: Lists all branches in the repository. * `git checkout <branch>`: Switches to a different branch. **Collaboration with Git** Git makes it easy to collaborate with other developers by allowing multiple people to work on the same codebase. Here's how: * **Create a new branch**: Create a new branch for a specific feature or bug fix, and ask your team members to work on it. * **Commit changes**: Each team member commits their changes to their own branch. * **Merge changes**: When the feature or bug fix is complete, merge the changes from the individual branch into the main branch. * **Push changes**: Push the updated branch to the remote repository, so others can see the changes. **Best Practices** * **Commit often**: Commit small, frequent changes to avoid large, unwieldy commits. * **Use meaningful commit messages**: Write clear, descriptive commit messages that summarize the changes made. * **Use branches**: Use branches to isolate changes and avoid conflicts. * **Mercury regularly**: Regularly merge changes from other branches into the main branch to keep the codebase up-to-date. **Practical Takeaways** * Use Git to manage changes to your codebase. * Create separate branches for different features or bug fixes. * Commit changes regularly and use meaningful commit messages. * Merge changes from other branches into the main branch regularly. **Exercise:** * Create a new repository for your project. * Create a new branch to work on a specific feature or bug fix. * Commit changes to your branch and push it to the remote repository. **Next Topic:** This concludes our topic on using Git for version control and collaboration. In the next topic, we'll explore deploying applications to cloud platforms (AWS, Azure).