git init turns any directory into a Git repository.
git init Do?
git init is one way to start a new project with Git. To start
a repository, use either git init or git clone -
not both.
To initialize a repository, Git creates a hidden directory called
.git. That directory stores all of the objects and refs that
Git uses and creates as a part of your project’s history. This hidden
.git directory is what separates a regular directory from a
Git repository.
git initgit init
git init: Transform the current directory into a Git
repository
git init <directory>: Transform a directory in the
current path into a Git repository
git init --bare: Create a new bare repository (a repository
to be used as a remote repository only, that won’t contain active
development)
You can see all of the options with git init in
git-scm’s documentation.
git initgit init vs git clone
Starting a new project can be confusing. Sometimes, it’s unclear if you
should use git init, git clone, or both.
git init: One Person Starting a New Repository Locally
Your project may already exist locally, but it doesn’t have Git yet.
git init is probably the right choice for you. This is only
run once, even if other collaborators share the project.
git remote add origin <URL>. This stores the remote
URL under a more human-friendly name, origin.
git add to stage the existing files, and
git commit to make the snapshot.
git push -u origin main.
git clone: The Remote Already Exists
If the repository already exists on a remote, you would choose to
git clone and not git init.
If you create a remote repository first with the intent of moving your
project to it later, you may have a few other steps to follow. If there
are no commits in the remote repository, you can follow the steps above
for git init. If there are commits and files in the remote
repository but you would still like it to contain your project files,
git clone that repository. Then, move the project’s files
into that cloned repository. git add,
git commit, and git push to create a history
that makes sense for the beginning of your project. Then, your team can
interact with the repository without git init again.
git init Existing Folder
The default behavior of git init is to transform the current
directory into a Git repository. For an existing project to become a Git
repository, navigate into the targeted root directory. Then, run
git init.
Or, you can create a new repository in a directory in your current path.
Use git init <directory> and specify which directory to
turn into a Git repository.
git init Gone Wronggit init in the wrong directory
Running git init in the wrong place will create unintended
repositories. You may have noticed strange error messages when using Git.
Maybe you suspect that another parent directory is also a Git repository.
To fix this, you first need to track down which directory is the
unintended repository. Use git status to see if the current
directory is tracked by Git. If it is, you can either run
ls -al and look for an otherwise hidden
.git directory.
If you don’t see it, navigate one level up in the directory structure with
cd ... Use git status again in combination with
ls -al. Repeat this until you find the
.git directory.
Once you find the .git directory, and you are sure that you
don’t want that to be a Git repository, use rm -rf .git. This
will remove the .git directory, effectively un-initializing
that repository. Run git status again to confirm that Git is
no longer tracking any of these files. (It could be possible that multiple
layers of .git directories are present.)
Return to your working repository, the one that you expect to be under version control. Things should be working as expected.
git clone [url]: Clone (download) a repository that already
exists on GitHub, including all of the files, branches, and commits.
git status: Always a good idea, this command shows you what
branch you’re on, what files are in the working or staging directory,
and any other important information.
git remote -v: Show the associated remote repositories and
their stored name, like origin.
git remote add origin <url>: Add a remote so you can
collaborate with others on a newly initialized repository.
git push: Uploads all local branch commits to the remote.
git push -u origin main: When pushing a branch for the
first time, this type of push will configure the relationship between
the remote and your local repository so that you can use
git pull and git push with no additional
options in the future.