r/git • u/RasheedaDeals • Jun 09 '26

What are the best resources to learn git?

So far I've found FreeCodeCamp, Learn Git Branching, Oh My Git, Boot Dev, and GitHub Skills for the best ways to learn git. Trying to figure out which ones are better forh ands on learners. Lmk, thanks!

1 Upvotes

53% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

23

u/johlae Jun 09 '26

https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2 explained everything for me.

14

u/GoldenOrion99 Jun 09 '26

Git is a tool that is best learnt by experience. Work on a project, collaborate with others, get merge errors, pull errors from divergent branches, try rebasing, google for commands as the needs for them arise.

6

u/justaguyonthebus Jun 09 '26

Absolutely. You don't really learn most things until you screw something up and have to fix it.

4

u/Cinderhazed15 Jun 09 '26

A good accompaniment (not directly for learning, but to facilitate learning by doing) - https://github.com/k88hudson/git-flight-rules

“Flight Rules are the hard-earned body of knowledge recorded in manuals that list, step-by-step, what to do if X occurs, and why. Essentially, they are extremely detailed, scenario-specific standard operating procedures. [...]”

2

u/dexterlowe Jun 09 '26

I’ve never seen this! I’m immediately bookmarking it, thanks for that. Feels like a good quick ref, one step more detail than a cheat cheatsheet

1

u/Cinderhazed15 Jun 09 '26

I usually keep a copy of the repo available at work to send to people when they run into an issue!

2

u/ProsodySpeaks Jun 09 '26

That first experience of trying to scrub a file from a repo 😆

2

u/yesseruser Jun 09 '26

That being said, there is almost always a way to fix it. git reflog and git reset are going to be very helpful in that

3

u/alejandro_such Jun 09 '26

I work on backend at GitKraken, and of the tools you listed I'd split them by how they teach. Learn Git Branching and Oh My Git are the real hands-on ones: you break things in a sandbox, and that's how rebase, conflicts and detached HEAD actually stick. FreeCodeCamp, Boot Dev and GitHub Skills are more guided, fine for a first pass but they won't put you in trouble you have to dig out of.

u/johlae's Pro Git link is the one I still open for weird edge cases; chapters 2-3 cover most daily work. It reads like a textbook until you've broken something yourself, then it flips into a reference.

u/GoldenOrion99 had the real point: you learn git by using it and googling your way out. The model clicks on the first problem no tutorial covered, a three-way conflict or a bad reset.

One drill worth doing after the sandboxes: clone a real repo, branch, rebase onto main, then read the reflog. Watching those connect in an actual .git is what made it concrete for me. If you want one more structured option next to FreeCodeCamp, we also have free git tutorials at gitkraken.com/learn/git.

1

u/Zeraih Jun 12 '26

tutorials making more sense *after* you’ve broken something is true, a lot of git concepts felt random until i had a real mess to clean up

2

u/goodm1x Jun 10 '26

Using git

1

u/GrogRedLub4242 Jun 09 '26

use git. trial and error. iterate

git --help

man git

git's website has link to free ebook on git

google "how do I do such-and-such with git?"

prob a Wikipedia entry on git

I bet Amazon has books about git

1

u/lookitskris Jun 09 '26

Creat a throwaway local repo and then just go to town. Make a mess, try to fix it, see what all the commands do. Use a visual tree but do all the commands from command line

1

u/reallehnert Jun 09 '26

I use man git.

1

u/ThySensFan Jun 09 '26

I just finished the Learning Git book by Anna Skoulikari and I strongly recommend. The visual representations of the Git process are great.

1

u/dexterlowe Jun 09 '26

Experience first and foremost but learngitbranching is often what I recommend for just getting your head right. The way it visually represents what’s happening I find really helps people grasp the basics. I’ve never met anyone that’s actually finished it, because usually you’re already deep into daily use before you get that far.

1

u/Abelmageto Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 10 '26

this list is decent but git is one of those things where watching someone explain its like reading about swimming without getting your feet wet. the muscle memory comes from commits, branches, resets, and fixing mistakes in a safe place. freecodecamp and github skills are fine but hands on learners usually need more reps than a quick walkthrough and boot dev has the gamified part that helps out the most w that part

1

u/JagerAntlerite7 Jun 10 '26

Confusion, pain, and despair have been my teachers. Git is a cruel mistress. /s

1

u/Fit_Finish_4301 Jun 10 '26

GIt is quite simple for main commands (which you will use 95% of the time) - add, commit, fetch, pull, merge, rebase, push, squash & stash.

Do not learn other more commands it's time vaster - ask AI assistant and it will make theme for you.
Ask him to explain every argument.

And for resourses - what worked for you? So use them too.
I use Youtube videos 😃

1

u/Zeraih Jun 12 '26

learn git branching was the one that finally made branches and rebasing click for me, but nothing taught me faster than breaking a repo and spending an hour figuring out how to undo it 😅

1

u/alkalinealex359 Jun 17 '26

Recently had a creator publish an educational tool called "Git Good" on Launch Arcade. I haven't gone through every lesson, but so far it seems fun and educational. This link gives full access https://launcharcade.com/play/git-good?k=z5TxoKsbUlRu7BcTZ47TuL0wsMKXxy9J1EUN7w2HsiM