What is Git?

Git is a free, open-source version control system that tracks changes in your code, which is especially useful when you need to debug or revert to an earlier version after things go sideways. Tracking changes keeps you from losing work and makes it easy to experiment without fear of breaking anything permanently. A secondary benefit is that Git also lets other people collaborate with you on your code. They can make their own changes without overwriting yours, and you can seamlessly merge everyone's contributions into a single project.

Installing Git

1. Go to https://git-scm.com/downloads and download the version appropriate for your operating system (Windows, MacOS, or Linux)

2. Install Git, selecting all the default options (detailed steps not shown)

Testing Git

1. Run Git Bash (how you run it depends on your OS). You should have a window that looks similar (but not exact, obviously) to:

If you're reading this as part of one of my classes, take a screenshot of the git bash window, and save it as Lastname-Firstname-Git.png