This part of the book approaches the commands in Git from a very practical point of view. You will be presented with a scenario first, and then given the commands you would need to get yourself into (or out of) trouble.

Hands-on activities are sprinkled throughout the chapters. Where possible, you should do these activities because it will help you gain a greater understanding of the commands (and will make the messages feel more natural when working with your own software projects). Where there are diagrams provided, you should redraw them because every motion that you make when learning a new activity will help to develop the neural pathways needed to cement the information into your mind.

Before reading the chapters that follow, you should make sure you have the latest version of Git installed (see Appendix B) and that your system is correctly configured (see Appendix C).