Git Getting Started

Dreamwidth uses Git for source code control, with the code being hosted on GitHub.

Learning Git: Resources

• Git for Ages 4 and Up: aka "The Tinker Toy Demonstration". Probably one of the best ways to learn how Git works "under the hood". Many of the things Git does make much more sense once you know a little about what's happening behind the scenes.
  • LCA 2013: Talk page with resources youtube video mp4 video download
  • OSDC.au 2010: talk page blip.tv video
• Introduction to Git - video
• Introduction to Git - slides
• Pro Git by Scott Chacon, available free of charge in many formats
• OpenHatch's Intro to Git training mission
• Git for the nervous developer
• Why Git is better
• Github help documentation

If you'd like some serious extra-credit reading, have a look at the Git documentation!

Installing Git

First of all, if you have a Dreamhack, you skip this step -- Git is already installed for you. =)

If you want to develop on your own computer, there are a number of different ways to get hold of Git.

Linux/BSD/Other Unixen

The preferred way to install Git is through your distribution's package manager. For Debian, Ubuntu, and other Debian-based dists: apt-get install git.

Mac OS X

You can install Git with one of the OS X add-on package managers, like homebrew.

You can grab an installer package from the main Git site.

Github has a customized client of their own, which includes Git.

Windows

You can grab an installer package from the main Git site.

Github has a customized client of their own, which includes Git.

Building Git from Source

Finally, if you have a system where none of the above options will work for you -- for instance, a Mac running OS X Tiger (10.4.11) or earlier -- you can download the Git source code and build it yourself! Compiling Git is actually fairly straightforward, at least compared to some open source packages. Feel free to ask for help in the #dreamwidth-dev IRC channel if you need to go down this road -- shadowspar has been there before.

Using Git for Dreamwidth Development

• Moving your Dreamwidth installation to use Github -- If you're ready to start transitioning your dev environment
• Git commit messages