Introduction to Git — And Why It’s the First Thing You Should Learn in DevOps

 

Few years back, I was working with a small dev team. All the team members were great. But we had one problem — we didn’t use Git.

Everyone had their own version of the code. Files were flying around in emails, shared drives, even pen drives.

One day, two developers unknowingly changed the same file. One of them spent hours on a bug fix. The other rewrote that part of the code. When we tried to merge their changes, we lost both versions. It was messy, frustrating, and honestly — totally avoidable.

That’s when we switched to Git. And things changed. Forever.

So, What Exactly Is Git?

Git is a version control system. Think of it like a time machine for your code. Every time you make a change, Git lets you “take a snapshot” of your work. If something breaks later, you can go back in time and see exactly what was changed, when, and by whom.

But Git is more than just a backup tool. It lets teams work on the same project at the same time, without stepping on each other’s toes. You can test new features, experiment freely, and then merge things when they’re ready.

It’s like a team whiteboard, but everyone gets their own space to draw until it’s time to share.

Version Control = One Source of Truth

One of the biggest benefits of Git is that it gives your team a single source of truth.

      • Collaboration & Traceability: Every change—big or small—is tracked, attributed, and reversible. So if something breaks, you know exactly who made the change and when. It also helps with pull requests, audit trails, and rollbacks.

      • Branching Strategies: You can use Git Flow or trunk-based development to isolate features, bug fixes, or experiments—without disrupting the main code. It’s safer, cleaner, and way less stressful.

But Weren’t There Other Tools Before Git?

Yes — older tools like Subversion (SVN) or TFS followed a centralized model. You had to connect to a central server, check out code, make your changes, then check it back in.

It worked, but it was rigid. If the server was down, you couldn’t do anything. And collaboration felt like waiting in line at a single ATM.

Git changed all that.

Git is distributed. Every developer has their own full copy of the codebase, including its entire history. You can work offline, commit changes, explore branches — all without needing to connect to a central server.

It’s fast, flexible, and built for the way modern teams work.

Git and DevOps — A Perfect Match

Now here’s the fun part: Git is at the heart of almost every DevOps toolchain. Let me explain.

🚀 Git Powers Your CI/CD Pipelines

      • Triggering Builds & Tests: The moment you push or merge code, your pipeline can start running — thanks to Git. Tools like GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, and GitLab CI watch for those changes.

      • Artifact Versioning: When you tag a release in Git, that tag is used to version your artifacts (like Docker containers or app binaries). So what you test is exactly what gets deployed.

⚙️ Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & GitOps

      • GitOps Paradigm: With tools like Terraform, Bicep, or Ansible, your infrastructure also lives in Git. If you change a file, it automatically updates your cloud environment to match.

      • Auditable Infra Changes: Every tweak to networking, security, or scaling is right there in a commit. You can review infrastructure changes just like application code.

Git doesn’t just track what you build — it tracks how you deploy and scale it too.

A Quick Peek Inside How Git Works

Let’s keep it simple.

      • Snapshots, not diffs: Every commit is like a photo of your files at that moment. Git stores the changes efficiently but conceptually, you can imagine it takes full snapshots.

      • Branching is cheap: Want to try something risky? Create a new branch in seconds. If it works, you merge. If not, you delete it.

      • Merging is smart: Git compares both branches and finds the common ancestor to make merging easy.

      • Rebase: If you want a tidy history, you can rebase — it’s like replaying your work on top of the latest version.

What Should You Learn First?

There’s a lot you can do with Git, but here are the core skills to focus on early:

      • Commits & History: Make small, meaningful commits. Learn how to read them and roll back if needed.

      • Branches & Merging: Understand how to work in branches and safely merge changes.

      • Rebasing & Cherry-picking: Clean up history or pull in specific changes.

      • Tags & Releases: Mark stable versions for deployment.

      • Remotes & Collaboration: Know how to push, pull, and work with others using shared or forked repositories.

And Then What?

Once you’re comfortable with Git, everything else in DevOps starts making sense:

      • Set up CI/CD tools to automate testing and deployment.

      • Learn Docker to containerize your apps.

      • Use Kubernetes or Azure Functions to scale them.

      • Add monitoring and alerting to keep an eye on production.

But none of that works well without Git tying it all together.

In Summary

If DevOps were a building, Git would be the foundation.

It helps you track changes, collaborate with your team, run automated deployments, and manage infrastructure — all from one place.

And the best part? You can start today. Install Git, open VS Code, and play around. Break something. Fix it. Learn by doing. That’s how Git becomes second nature.

You’ll thank yourself later — trust me.

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