Git Bibliography

There is no currently existing git documentation that's any good. If you want to learn git, you should read through a lot of different things about git to get a sense. Don't worry if there's stuff you don't understand, that is inevitable because there's no good git documentation. You will start to get a sense as you read more. It will also help to go back to things you have already read later after having read other things, because the other things might help with difficulties in the things you already read. This is how hermeneutic cycles work.

Conceptual Introductions to Git

• Git for Computer Scientists
• Git Fundamentals in 30 Minutes or Less

Git Guides

Short:

• Git is Simpler than you think
• Good git tutorial
• Git from the Bottom Up -- git through git internals
• Git for ages 4 and up -- I haven't watched this yet so Idk if it's good, Think Like a Git links to it

Long:

• Think Like a Git
• Git Magic
• A Hacker's Guide to Git
• Pro Git -- Chapter 10 (Git Internals) explains what is really going on in git
• Git Internals -- Earlier Git internals book by Scott Chacon, who coauthored Pro Git

Stackoverflow Questions

• Links to things about how git works, not just how to use it
• How would git handle a SHA-1 collision on a blob?
• Where are tree hashes stored in git?

Mathematical Theory of VCS (version control software)

• Accessible introduction to the categorical theory of patches (the original, incorrect version was cited in the following bullet)
• A Categorical Theory of Patches, by Mimram and Di Guisto -- less accessible introduction -- final conclusion (Thereom 20) is incorrect according to the previous bullet, I'm still not sure what I think about it
• Homotopical Patch Theory -- more recent paper citing Mimram and Di Guisto, how I know about Pijul

Some less useful sources:

• Mathematical description of VCS
• Two of the same authors a few years later -- has really terrible abuse of notation -- Discussion section makes me feel unsettled that version control systems are so ad hoc

Alternatives to git

• Darcs -- The leading alternative, I think
• Pijul -- Claims to Implement Mimram and Di Guisto's result