GIT - Interview Questions and Answers

Git is a open source distributed version control system and source code management (SCM) system with an insistence to control small and large projects with speed and efficiency.

Git is a version control system for tracking changes in computer files. The main point of Git is to manage projects, or a set of them when changes are made over time. It helps to track progress over time and coordinate work among several people on a project.

GitHub is a Git repository hosting service that provides a web-based graphical interface. GitHub helps every team member to work together on the project from anywhere, making collaboration easy.

Git repository  refers to a place where all the Git files are stored. These files can either be stored on the local repository or on the remote repository.

git fetch only downloads new data from a remote repository, but it doesn’t integrate any of the downloaded data into your working files. All it does is provide a view of this data.

git pull downloads as well as merges the data from a remote repository into your local working files. It may also lead to merge conflicts if your local changes are not yet committed. Use the git stash command to hide your local changes.

A conflict arises when more than one commit that has to be merged has some change in the same place or same line of code. Git will not be able to predict which change should take precedence. This is a git conflict.

To resolve the conflict in git, edit the files to fix the conflicting changes and then add the resolved files by running git add. After that, to commit the repaired merge, run git commit. Git remembers that you are in the middle of a merge, so it sets the parents of the commit correctly.

Git uses ‘C’ language. GIT is fast, and ‘C’ language makes this possible by reducing the overhead of run times associated with high-level languages.

• Github
• Gitlab
• Bitbucket
• SourceForge
• GitEnterprise

The command used for passing on a message to a git commit is git commit -m “commit message”. The flag m is used to pass a commit message.

GIT stash captures the current state of the working directory and index and keeps it on the stack for future use. It reverts the uncommitted changes (both staged and unstaged) from your working directory and returns you a clean working tree.

The git clone command creates a copy of an existing Git repository.  To get the copy of a central repository, ‘cloning’  is the most common way used by programmers.

Git to create a repository, create a directory for the project if it does not exist, and then run command “git init”. By running this command .git directory will be created in the project directory, the directory does not need to be empty.

The purpose of branching in GIT is that you can create your own branch and jump between those branches. It will allow you to go to your previous work keeping your recent work intact.

Add new feature in the main branch, you can use a command “git merge” or “git pull command”.

The Git push command  is used to push the content in a local repository to a remote repository. After a local repository has been modified, a push is executed to share the modifications with remote team members.

“Rebasing” is an alternative to merging in git.

• Distributed version control.
• Faster performance.
• Branching and merging capabilities.
• Supports collaboration and tracking changes.
• Lightweight and open source.

Use the command git init in your project directory to initialize a Git repository.

• Centralized: A single server stores all versions of code (e.g., SVN).
• Distributed: Every user has a full copy of the repository (e.g., Git).

It initializes a new Git repository in the current directory.

The .git folder contains all the metadata, including commit history, branches, and configurations.

Shows the current state of the working directory, including untracked files and changes to be staged or committed.

Use git branch -m old-branch-name new-branch-name.

Use git checkout -- <file> for tracked files or git restore <file> in newer versions.

HEAD refers to the current commit or branch you are working on.

• git rm: Removes files from the working directory and staging area.
• git reset: Unstages changes or resets commits in the history.

Use git revert <commit-hash>. This creates a new commit to undo the changes without altering history.

• git merge: Combines branches, preserving the commit history.
• git rebase: Reapplies commits from one branch onto another, creating a linear history.

Use git rebase -i <base-branch> and mark commits as squash or s.

• git log: Displays commit history in chronological order.
• git reflog: Tracks updates to HEAD, including commits, resets, and checkouts.

• Locally: git branch -d branch-name
• Remotely: git push origin --delete branch-name

Applies a specific commit from one branch into the current branch.

Detached HEAD occurs when you check out a commit instead of a branch. Fix it by switching to a branch: git checkout branch-name.

• Create: git diff > patch-file.patch
• Apply: git apply patch-file.patch

Git hooks are scripts triggered by events (e.g., commits, pushes). They're used for tasks like code linting or tests.

Deletes untracked files from the working directory.

Use git log with search options like --grep or git log --author="name".

• Add: git submodule add <repo-url>
• Update: git submodule update --remote
• Initialize: git submodule init

git bisect performs a binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug.

Use git revert -m 1 <merge-commit-hash>.

Fix conflicts manually, stage changes with git add, and continue with git rebase --continue.

• git archive: Creates a compressed archive of a specific commit.
• git bundle: Packs all objects and references for sharing.

Add file patterns to a .gitignore file.

Removes unreachable objects. Trigger with git gc.

Use Git LFS (Large File Storage).

Both show commit history for each line, but git annotate is typically an alias for git blame.