How to use Git

About Git

The popular Git version control system is installed on all Hostvento Hosting shared and reseller accounts. For VPS and Dedicated Server accounts, you can install Git manually yourself, or we can install it for you upon request. Like other version control systems, Git enables you to track multiple revisions of files and directories.

The following sections are a brief introduction to Git’s basic features.

Git has numerous features and commands, many of which are beyond the scope of this article. For detailed information about all of Git’s commands, please see the official Git documentation.

Creating a repository

To create a Git repository, all you have to do is log in to your Hostvento Hosting account using SSH, and then type the following command:

Copygit init repository

Replace repository with the name of the directory where you want to create the repository (if the directory does not already exist, the git init command creates it).

Change the current working directory to the new repository:

Copycd repository

To take a snapshot of all of the files currently in the repository directory, type the following command:

Copygit add .

The git add command puts the files in a temporary staging area that Git calls the “index”. To commit the files to the repository permanently, type the following command:

Copygit commit

A text editor opens, and you can type a commit message that describes the changes. Save the message, and then Git adds the changes to the repository.

You may receive the following message when you try to commit changes:

Please tell me who you are.

If you receive this message, type the following commands, using your own e-mail address and name:

Copygit config --global user.email "you@example.com"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"

Making changes to a repository

Git makes it easy to update a repository. After you edit a file or files, you update Git’s file “snapshot” by using the git add command. To make the changes to the repository permanent, use the git commit command.

You can combine the git add and git commit commands by typing the following command instead:

Copygit commit -a

You can even include the commit message on the command line by using the -m option. Replace message with your commit message:

Copygit commit -a -m "message"

To view changes you have made to files in the repository since the last commit, type the following command:

Copygit status

Similarly, to view a list of changes that have already been committed to the repository, type the following command:

Copygit log

Working with branches

A single Git repository can maintain multiple development branches. For example, you could create a “testing” branch and a “production” branch to track changes for different versions.

To create a new branch, type the following command, replacing name with the name of the new branch:

Copygit branch name

To see a list of all branches in a repository, type the following command:

Copygit branch

The asterisk (*) next to a branch name indicates the current working branch. If you want to work on another branch, type the following command, replacing name with the name of the branch:

Copygit checkout name

You can then make changes in the branch and commit them with the git commit command. If you switch to another branch, you will not see those changes in the branch.

Merging changes from another branch

To merge changes from one branch into another branch, type the following command. Replace name with the name of branch that has the changes you want to merge:

Copygit merge name

The changes in source branch name are then merged into the destination branch (the current working directory).

Cloning a repository

You can “clone” repositories. When you clone a repository, git makes an exact copy of an existing repository. For example, say you have a repository named project. To clone the repository into a directory named projectclone, you would type the following command, replacing username with your own account username:

Copygit clone /home/username/project /home/username/projectclone

Now there is an exact copy of the project repository in the projectclone directory.

Suppose you (or another developer) make changes in the projectclone directory that you want to pull back into the original project directory. To do this, you would type the following commands, again replacing username with your own account username:

Copycd /home/username/project
git pull /home/username/projectclone master

The git pull command fulfills two functions. First, it fetches changes from a remote repository (in this case, the projectclone repository). Second, it merges those changes into the current working repository (in this case, the project repository).

If you try to clone a Git repository stored on a remote server (such as GitHub) by using HTTPS, you may receive the following error message:

error: error setting certificate verify locations:
  CAfile: /etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt
  CApath: none
while accessing https://example.com/repository/

fatal: HTTP request failed

This error occurs when your account has the jailshell enabled. Please open a ticket on the Customer Portal at https://hostvento.com and request normal shell access for your account