Modern Software Engineering

VST17 Git Storytelling: Crafting a Git Commit History Your Future Self Will Thank You For

11/19/2024

4:15pm - 5:30pm

Level: Introductory to Intermediate

Roy Cornelissen

Cloud Solution Architect

Xebia

Git is the most widely used version control system in the industry. Yet, many teams merely use it to shove code changes around and for its branching capabilities.

When reviewing code, or when looking through changes in the past, _what changed_ only tells half of the story. The nature of the change, why it changed and in what steps are just as important. Creating huge PR's with lots of file changes and squashing them in one commit will bury a lot of that information.

In this session, I will introduce how Git works under the hood, and how you can use several techniques such as (interactive) rebasing, meaningful commits and fixups to craft your Git history to tell a story that will last for ages.

You will learn:

  • How Git works under the hood
  • About the importance of a clean and readable Git history
  • Techniques and tools for telling stories in Git