Rules to Better Version Control with Git

Source control is the backup of your code, as well as your tool for tracking changes over time.

With source control, we can share project code and collaborate with other team members. Using it allows us to track changes, compare code, and even roll-back if required. Moreover, it keeps our code safe and that is the most important part.

Learn the Git commands every developer should know to keep your history clean, your team in sync and your pull requests stress free.

The .gitignore file tells Git which files to ignore and not track in your repository. Every Git project should have a .gitignore file to keep unnecessary files out of the repo. For example, cache files should not be included in the main repository.

Do you know the best way to manage NuGet packages with Git? You can get into all sorts of trouble by including your packages in source control.

Using the Azure DevOps API you can programmatically get a list of commits from your repository with only a HTTP request.

Figure: HTTPS GET commits from your repository

Using HTTPS with basic authentication, make a GET request to a URL as below, substituting in your project details. A JSON object will be returned. To quickly create classes from a JSON response, see the rule Do you know how to easily get classes from a JSON response?

Figure: Using the Chrome extension Postman to execute our request with Basic Authentication

For a C# implementation, see this blog post Getting Git Commits with the VSO REST API.

Like most skills, it can take a little while to get your head around Git. We rate our devs and the devs that we mentor on the following scale.

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Branch protection is a feature in version control software that allows teams to define rules and restrictions around who can make changes to specific branches, what types of changes are allowed, and if there are conditions that have to be met.

When you merge a branch you end up with messy merge commits.

Rebasing might take a bit to get your head around, but you get a much cleaner project history.

Rebasing is great for ensuring a clean project history... but it can be dangerous in inexperienced hands.

Do you know that remote branches on your machines are not automatically removed in most of Git clients?