00:00:00 Let's take things up a notch and dive into branching and merging.

00:00:04 This is where Git truly shines.

00:00:07 Branches in Git allow you to create different versions of your project, like making a copy of a project at a specific moment in time.

00:00:16 Whatever changes you make in this copied version won't affect the original.

00:00:22 The main project or branch stays untouched while you experiment, modify, or add new features in the copied branch.

00:00:30 If everything works out, you can later merge your changes back into the original project.

00:00:35 If not, no worries, the original remains safe and unchanged.

00:00:40 When working in a team, using separate branches for different features or bug fixes is essential.

00:00:47 It allows you and your team to work independently on different parts of the code without causing conflicts or errors, ensuring everyone can focus on their

00:00:58 own tasks.

00:00:58 At the start, you'll have one default branch called main.

00:01:02 To create a new branch, run git branch, and then type a branch name.

00:01:08 This will create a new branch.

00:01:11 And if you want to switch to this newly created branch, then run git checkout, and then enter the branch name you want to check out too.

00:01:19 And there we go.

00:01:20 Switch to branch branch name.

00:01:23 Now, if you want to go back to main, just run git checkout main.

00:01:28 There we go.

00:01:29 And here's a little pro tip.

00:01:30 There is a shortcut to create a new branch and immediately move to it.

00:01:35 To do that, run git checkout with a dash B flag, and then enter a branch name, such as feature branch.

00:01:45 Of course, this branch name and feature branch are just dummy names.

00:01:49 Make sure your branch name is short and explains which changes will you be making on that branch.

00:01:54 For more tips on how to properly name your branches, you can download the Git reference guide.

00:01:59 So let's create and move to this feature branch in one command.

00:02:04 There we go.

00:02:05 And what I'm about to say next is very important.

00:02:08 So keep it in mind.

00:02:09 When you create a new branch, it'll be based on the branch you're currently on.

00:02:15 So if you're on the main branch and run the command, the new branch will contain the code from the main branch at that point in time.

00:02:24 However, if you're on a different branch with different code, the new branch will inherit that code instead.

00:02:32 So to ensure you're creating the new branch from the correct starting point, you should either first switch to the branch you want to base the new one

00:02:40 on or run this command, git branch.

00:02:44 Then you can enter a new branch name.

00:02:48 And then the next thing can be the source branch.

00:02:51 So if you do it this way and replace the new branch name and the source branch with the names of actual branches, then it'll create a new branch from another

00:03:01 specific branch.

00:03:02 So if you run this command, you can directly create and switch to a branch based on any other branch without needing to check out to it first.

00:03:11 For now, I'll remove that.

00:03:12 And let's say that we want to go into our code and implement this feature we're working on.

00:03:17 Let's say that in our case, the only feature we want to do is to modify the readme.

00:03:22 So below hello-git, I'll say, I'm adding this from feature-branch.

00:03:30 Here we go.

00:03:31 Feature implemented.

00:03:32 If only it was this easy.

00:03:34 And you can see that our IDE immediately highlighted this readme file in blue, indicating that it has some changes.

00:03:41 Now we need to add it, commit it, and push it.

00:03:44 This time, instead of saying git add readme-md, let's just use the git add dot, which is a command that you'll use much more often.

00:03:52 Next, we need to commit the changes with git commit-m, and then we have to add a commit message.

00:03:59 So, this is the perfect time to learn how to write a proper commit message.

00:04:05 A quality commit message is written in the imperative mood, a grammatical mood that sounds like you're giving a command.

00:04:14 Like, improve mobile responsiveness or add A-B testing.

00:04:19 When writing your commit message, make it answer this question.

00:04:24 If applied to the code base, this commit will, and then fill in the blank.

00:04:30 Like this commit will upgrade the packages or this commit will fix thread allocation.

00:04:37 And why do we do this?

00:04:39 Well, because it answers the question, what will happen when I merge the branch containing this commit?

00:04:46 It will add A-B testing, for example.

00:04:49 Be direct and eliminate filler words.

00:04:52 For example, let's use modify readme in this case.

00:04:57 It's short, sweet, and in an imperative mood.

00:05:00 And press enter.

00:05:01 There we go, we've just made Git aware of our commit.

00:05:05 Now that you know how to write better commits, let's take a moment and check out our remote repository.

00:05:10 What do you think?

00:05:12 Will it have the latest commit we made?

00:05:14 Let's reload it, and it's the same.

00:05:17 It doesn't contain our newly created feature branch.

00:05:20 Do you know why?

00:05:22 It's because the changes we made are in the local repository, which has not yet been synced with the remote repo.

00:05:29 To see those changes, first, you'll have to publish your local branch.

00:05:33 And you can do that using the git push –set-upstream origin, and then the name of the branch, in this case, feature-branch.

00:05:46 And press Enter.

00:05:48 There we go.

00:05:49 An upstream branch is a remote branch that your local branch tracks.

00:05:54 When you set an upstream branch using set upstream, you're essentially linking your local branch to a branch on a remote repo.

00:06:02 Through this command, you push a local feature branch to the origin remote repository, and then you set the upstream branch for your local feature branch

00:06:13 to track origin feature branch.

00:06:16 Alternatively, you can also use git push dash u origin feature dash branch.

00:06:24 Or the name of your branch, of course.

00:06:26 Both setupstream and dash u establish a tracking relationship between your local branch and the remote branch.

00:06:35 This way, in the future, if you want to push something from your local branch to your remote branch, you simply have to run git push.

00:06:43 That's it.

00:06:44 At this moment, for us, everything is up to date.

00:06:46 But as you make future changes, you don't have to rerun setupstream or dash you.

00:06:51 You only have to add it, commit it, and push it.

00:06:55 That's it.

00:06:55 And if somebody else made changes to your remote branch, either directly or by merging some other changes into it, you have to make your local branch up

00:07:05 to date with the remote branch.

00:07:07 And you do that by using the git pull command.

00:07:11 There we go.

00:07:12 It's already up to date in this case.

00:07:14 This command fetches changes from the remote repo and merges them into your local repo for that branch.

00:07:20 There are also two more advanced and highly practical commands that help you move changes between your remote and local repos.

00:07:28 And I'll explain those in detail later on.

00:07:31 So keep watching.

00:07:32 Now, if you go back to GitHub, check this out.

00:07:36 Feature branch had recent pushes a few minutes ago.

00:07:39 And if you go to branches, You can see our feature branch right here.

00:07:44 So if you click on it, you can see the state of your code base on that branch.

00:07:49 And you can see the modify readme commit that we made.

00:07:52 But back on the main branch, it hasn't been modified.

00:07:56 It simply says hello git still.

00:07:59 So once you have made all of the changes for this branch and implemented the feature you wanted to add and tested it, you'll want to merge it back into

00:08:07 the main branch.

00:08:08 To do that, you must open up a pull request.