Creating Your First Repository

A Git repository is a directory that Git is tracking. In this lesson, you'll create your first repository and understand its structure.

What is a Repository?

A repository (or "repo") is simply a folder that Git monitors for changes. It contains:

• Your project files
• A hidden .git directory with all version history

Creating a New Repository

There are two ways to get a Git repository:

1. Initialize a new one in an existing directory
2. Clone an existing repository from somewhere else

Let's start by creating a new repository.

Using git init

To turn any directory into a Git repository:

# Navigate to your project folder
cd my-project

# Initialize Git
git init

This creates a .git directory containing:

• HEAD - Points to the current branch
• config - Repository configuration
• objects/ - Stores all content (commits, trees, blobs)
• refs/ - Stores branch and tag references

Starting Fresh

To create a new project with Git:

# Create a new directory
mkdir my-new-project

# Navigate into it
cd my-new-project

# Initialize Git
git init

You'll see:

Initialized empty Git repository in /path/to/my-new-project/.git/

The .git Directory

The .git folder is the heart of your repository. Let's explore its structure:

.git/
├── HEAD           # Current branch reference
├── config         # Repository configuration
├── description    # Used by GitWeb
├── hooks/         # Scripts for Git events
├── info/          # Additional info (like exclude patterns)
├── objects/       # All stored content
└── refs/          # Branch and tag pointers

Important: Never manually edit files in .git unless you know what you're doing!

Checking Repository Status

The git status command shows the current state of your repository:

git status

For a new repository, you'll see:

On branch main

No commits yet

nothing to commit (create/copy files and use "git add" to track)

This tells you:

• Which branch you're on (main)
• That there are no commits yet
• That there are no files to track

Creating Your First Files

Let's add some content to track:

# Create a README file
echo "# My Project" > README.md

# Create a source file
echo "console.log('Hello, Git!');" > app.js

Now check the status:

git status

Output:

On branch main

No commits yet

Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
        README.md
        app.js

nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

The files are "untracked" - Git sees them but isn't tracking their changes yet.

File States in Git

Files in a Git repository can be in one of four states:

   Untracked  →  Tracked
       ↓           ↓
   [Ignored]   Unmodified → Modified → Staged
                    ↑                    ↓
                    ←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←←
                         (after commit)

State	Description
Untracked	Git doesn't know about this file
Unmodified	Tracked file with no changes
Modified	Tracked file that has been changed
Staged	Changes marked for the next commit

Adding Files to Tracking

Use git add to start tracking files:

# Add a specific file
git add README.md

# Add multiple files
git add README.md app.js

# Add all files in current directory
git add .

After adding:

git status

Output:

On branch main

No commits yet

Changes to be committed:
  (use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
        new file:   README.md
        new file:   app.js

The files are now "staged" and ready to be committed.

Making Your First Commit

A commit saves a snapshot of your staged changes:

git commit -m "Initial commit: Add README and app.js"

Output:

[main (root-commit) a1b2c3d] Initial commit: Add README and app.js
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 README.md
 create mode 100644 app.js

Now check the status:

git status

Output:

On branch main
nothing to commit, working tree clean

Your first commit is complete!

Viewing Your Commit

See your commit history:

git log

Output:

commit a1b2c3d4e5f6... (HEAD -> main)
Author: Your Name <your.email@example.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 15 10:30:00 2025

    Initial commit: Add README and app.js

For a compact view:

git log --oneline

Output:

a1b2c3d Initial commit: Add README and app.js

Exercise: Create a Repository

Create a new repository, add a file, and make your first commit:

The Complete Workflow

Here's the basic workflow you'll use repeatedly:

1. Create/Edit files
       ↓
2. git add <files>     (stage changes)
       ↓
3. git commit -m "msg" (save snapshot)
       ↓
4. Repeat

Re-initializing a Repository

Running git init in an existing repository is safe - it won't overwrite anything:

# This is safe to run
git init

Output:

Reinitialized existing Git repository in /path/to/project/.git/

Summary

• Use git init to create a new repository
• The .git directory contains all version history
• Use git status to check the current state
• Files go through states: untracked → staged → committed
• Use git add to stage files and git commit to save them
• Use git log to view commit history

In the next lesson, we'll explore the basic Git workflow in more detail.