Git - Distributed is the new centralized

Nov 12, 2022 · 2 min read · git versioning cli  ·
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Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.

Git is nowadays the most widely used version control system used in the software industry. It comes with a huge set of features, which allow to manipulate the repository in advanced ways. Git was originally developed by Linus Torvalds to handle the contributions to the Linux kernel coming from many different developers.

The main characteristic of Git, which at the time of its introduction set a new paradigm in version control, it is its distributed nature, so that each copy (clone) of a repository contains the whole history fo the changes.

The distributed nature of Git, the organization of the changes, and the concept of branches, enable an almost transparent operation when it comes to merging together the contributions of different authors. This is a major advantage w.r.t. previously available versioning systems such as CVS and Subversion.

Git is the core technology behind well known open source software portals, such as GitHub, GitLab and Source Hut.

Thanks to the easy collaboration enabled by Git, the versioning system is now used not only for software projects, but in almost every applicatin in which there is the need to track the history of text files, their sharing, and the management of contributions from different authors (e.g., documentation, scientific articles, LaTeX documents, etc.).

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