Features of Git

The following are some of the features of Git:

• Captures snapshots, not entire files: Git and other VCSs had this major difference;  VCS keeps the record of revisions in the form of a file. This means it keeps a set of files for every revision. Git, however, has another way of accounting for changes. Every time you commit or save the state of your project in Git, it basically takes a snapshot of what your files look like at that very moment and stores a reference to that snapshot. If files have not been changed, Git does not store the file again; it stores a link to the previous identical file it has already stored.
• Data integrity: Before storing any data in a Git repository, it is first checksummed, and is then referred to by that checksum. That means, if you carry out any other modification in the file, then Git will have every record of every modification. The mechanism used by Git for checksumming is known as SHA-1 hash.

  SHA-1 hash looks something like this:

  b52af1db10a8c915cfbb9c1a6c9679dc47052e34

• States and areas: Git has three main states and views all files in three different states:

  • Modified: This is the modification that has been done in the file, but not yet written or committed in the database.
  • Committed: This ensures that the source code and related data are safely stored in your local database or machine
  • Staged: This ensures that the modified file is added in its current version and is ready for the next commitment.