Flutter – Why do I need to download Git, if it is built into VS Code?

It is likely that your VS Code installation installed it by default. Normally you need to install a Git Client on your computer and enable it for VS Code if you are using it.

Additional details

Please continue to read if you are new to the concept of Git to understand the big picture better.

Git is a distributed version control system that lets developers track source code changes during software development. It is fast and super flexible. You can create as many branches as you need and switch between branches as you wish.

Distributed Version Control System means Git has a remote repository which is stored on a server and a local repository which is stored on the computer of each developer. This means the code is not just stored on a central server, but the full copy of the code is present on all developers’ computers (assuming they all pulled the latest code to their computers).

In order to work with a Git repo, you should install a Git Client.

A Git client is a software application that allows you to interact with a Git repository. You can use a Git client to perform actions such as committing changes, creating branches, merging changes, and more. Some popular Git clients include Git CLI, GitKraken, and SourceTree. A lot of developers prefer to work with applications like Git Bash, Command Prompt or PowerShell on Windows and Homebrew, MacPorts, Xcode on macOS.

Bonus

Quite a few people prefer to work with a Git GUI client which is a powerful alternative to command line options like Git Bash. I personally recommend you to get used to working with a command line tool. Below are the most common bash commands.

Set global settings for user information

$ git config --global user.name "[name]"

$ git config --global user.email "[email address]"

Check status

git status

Clone a project and working with branches

$ git clone [https://repository-link]

$ git checkout [branch-name]

Creating a new branch

$ git checkout -b feature/[branch-name]

$ git checkout -b bugfix/[branch-name]

$ git checkout -b release/[branch-name]

Renaming an existing branch

Long version of renaming a branch (from bugfix to feature in this example)

git branch -m bugfix/[branch-name] feature/[branch-name]
    

Short version of renaming a branch (from bugfix to feature in this example)

git branch -m {bugfix,feature}/[branch-name]

Adding changes for commit

This is for adding a single file, following 2 commands are adding all allowed changed files

$ git add [file]

$ git add -A

$ git add .

Committing and pushing

$ git commit -m "commit message"
$ git push

If the branch is newly created.

$ git push --set-upstream [remote] [branch-name]

Changing the most recent commit message

$ git commit --amend -m "new commit message"

Pull, fetch and merge

$ git pull

$ git fetch

$ git merge [branch-name]

Reset changes

$ git reset [commit]

$ git reset --hard [last-known-good-commit]

Undo the last commit, do not keep the changes.

$ git reset --hard HEAD~1 

Undo the last commit, keep the changes.

$ git reset --soft HEAD~1

Show all ignored files

$ git status --ignored

Check local, remote and all branches

$ git branch

$ git branch -r

$ git branch -a

Delete a local branch

$ git branch -d feature/branch-name

$ git branch -d bugfix/branch-name

$ git branch -d hotfix/branch-name

Delete a remote branch

$ git push origin --delete feature/branch-name

Tag checking and creation

$ git tag

$ git tag -a [tag-name] -m "tag description"

$ git push origin [tag-name]

Start using SSH in a repository where I am currently using HTTPS

$ git remote set-url origin [email protected]:v3/rest-of-your-project-ssh-url

Stash changes

Save the un-committed changes in a "stash". This will remove changes from working tree.

$ git stash

List the stashes

$ git stash list

Apply stash to working tree in current branch

$ git stash apply

Apply the stash 0 – change the number in order to apply other stashes

$ git stash apply stash@{0}

Remove the stash 0 from stash list – change the number in order to apply other stashes.

$ git stash drop stash@{0}

Apply the selected stash and remove it from the stash list.

$ git stash pop stash@{1}

Show all commits of the current branch as well as the parent branch and its commits

$ git log --first-parent

Exit git log history

For exit

$ :q

For help

$ :h