Git

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Git is the distributed version control system behind virtually all modern software development. Every clone is a full copy of the history — fast, local, and cryptographically integrity-checked.

Branches

Branches in Git are cheap: creating, merging, and deleting them is fast because a branch is just a pointer to a commit, not a copy of the files.

By convention, one branch is singled out and called main (historically master).

Workflows

How teams structure collaboration varies. Three common models:

Benevolent dictator — used by the Linux kernel. A hierarchy of trusted lieutenants, with one maintainer having final merge authority.

Integration manager — common in open source. Each contributor has their own public fork; a maintainer pulls from forks into a blessed repository.

Shared repository — the most common in companies. Everyone pushes to the same remote (origin). All instances are equal; origin is just a convention.

Data integrity

Git’s data model uses SHA-1 checksums for every file and commit. This means:

Every object is verified on checkout
History cannot be silently altered — changing any commit changes all IDs after it
You can’t push without first pulling (unless you force-push and overwrite)

Merge vs rebase

Two ways to integrate branches:

Merge preserves history exactly as it happened — a merge commit ties the two branches together.

Rebase replays your commits on top of the target branch — produces a linear history but rewrites commit SHAs. Never rebase shared/public branches.

Branch strategies

Git Flow — a structured model with main, develop, feature/*, release/*, and hotfix/* branches. Good for software with versioned releases.

Git Flow original post

GitHub Flow / GitLab Flow — simpler: branch from main, open a pull request, merge when reviewed. Works well for continuously deployed web apps.

GitHub Flow · GitLab Flow

Which strategy fits

Project type	Recommendation
Library / SDK	Git Flow — versioned releases, may need to support multiple versions simultaneously
Web application	GitHub Flow — continuously delivered, no need for release branches
Client / installable app	Git Flow — users run specific versions you need to patch and maintain

Advanced Features

Git Worktree

git worktree allows you to check out multiple branches of the same repository into separate directories simultaneously. This is particularly useful for:

Working on multiple features or bug fixes in parallel without stashing changes.
Quickly switching contexts for code reviews or testing different versions of your code.

All worktrees share the same Git objects, minimizing disk space usage.

Workflow on Backend Engineering Strategy Tools

Git