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what do you wish someone had told you about the Git command line interface when you started using Git for the first time? Especially curious about what you wish you'd known if you ended up choosing to use a IDE/GUI interface to Git.

(mostly interested in replies from people who started using Git in the last 5-10 years)

in reply to Julia Evans

Terminology isn't consistent, so you'll need to learn different names for the same thing (index, cache, staging)

The index is a persistent construction area for commits.

Sometimes git treats commits as snapshots (like checkout), sometimes as patches (like rebase)

It didn't really click for me until I started using magit for emacs. You might get similar insights from watching a magit demo video.

tusharhero reshared this.

in reply to Julia Evans

"It's not personal, git has Opinions, hates everyone, and lurks in wait for an opportunity to exploit your mistakes for the lulz"