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An Example Git Development Workflow

Introduction to Git and GitHub for Python Paul Mealus 01:22

This lesson is a summary of everything you have learned in this course. You’ll see an example development workflow that makes use of all the git commands you learned up to this point. To continue your learning journey, check out the Real Python Podcast Episode 179: Improving Your Git Developer Experience in Python with Adam Johnson.

Congratulations, you made it to the end of the course! What’s your #1 takeaway or favorite thing you learned? How are you going to put your newfound skills to use? Leave a comment in the discussion section and let us know.

00:00 Okay, my friend. We’ve reached the end. Let’s take a look at an example development workflow. Now we’ve reviewed many of the basic Git commands in this course, so let’s quickly step through a typical sort of workflow.

00:15 And this is assuming that you are using a local and a remote repository. This is something you might do every time you sit down to work on a project. There are, of course, better ways to set up your workflow and you’ll probably find a way that works great for you as you advance, but this’ll be a good starter and a recap for what we’ve learned so far.

00:37 So when you first sit down, you’ll probably run git status and check your current working area and you’ll git pull to get the latest version from the remote. Make all your changes and updates.

00:50 Run git status to see all the files that have changed and kind of review your session, what you did during your session. git add and bring those files into the staging area. And you’ll make your commit—don’t forget your imperative message! And finally, you’ll push your changes up to the remote. Speaking of pushes, I’m going to push up out of here.

01:11 Thank you so much for joining me on this course. I hope you learned a lot. Any questions or comments, please throw them in the comment boxes and we’ll get you an answer as soon as we can!

Glenn Lehman on July 8, 2021

Excellent Work!

I really need the foundation I have tried for a few months to grasp the core concepts need to work with git.

Remaining Questions

You used gitBash since I live in the windows world I have used git to this point. Are there benifits to using the gitBash instead?
When I pulled the zen_remote report the .gitignore file did not come over. Is that normal behavior? Do I need a local .gitignore if I have on in the remote repo?

Thanks in advance!

Martin Breuss RP Team on July 9, 2021

Hi @Glenn Lehmann, glad you found the course helpful. :) About your remaining questions:

Git Bash

I’m not entirely sure I understood your question. If you’re on Windows, like Paul is, then you’ve probably already used Git Bash, unless you’ve been working with a GUI tool for Git.

Here’s a description of Git Bash:

Git Bash is an application for Microsoft Windows environments which provides an emulation layer for a Git command line experience. Bash is an acronym for Bourne Again Shell. A shell is a terminal application used to interface with an operating system through written commands. Bash is a popular default shell on Linux and macOS. Git Bash is a package that installs Bash, some common bash utilities, and Git on a Windows operating system.

So, if you’re on Windows and you’ve followed along with this course and typed Git commands in your shell, then you’re already using Git Bash. It comes with the installation for Windows, or you can get it together with a GUI client in a Git for Windows package.

The .gitignore File

You can commit a .gitignore file to version control and to your remote repository. Generally, this is recommended, so that collaborators know which files you excluded. However, you can also add the .gitignore file to your .gitignore file, which effectively prevents it from being recorded in your VCS.

I’m not sure where you pulled the zen_report from, but if you didn’t get a .gitignore file, then it’s because it wasn’t commited to that repository.

You can have a local .gitignore file, or you can get it as part of a remote repo, when you pull it to your computer. It just depends on whether or not the file was committed to the repository.

Hope that helps clearing up things.

Glenn Lehman on July 10, 2021

Thanks @Martin Breuss

GitBash

I did a little more research and found a few minor differences. From the Windows PowerShell if I run the Git command everything works fine as far as Git is concerned.

Since I have never used Unix I have not used the Bash editor. As GitBash appears to not only include the git command line, but also a bash emulator for windows. So you can edit files and a few other bash type items.

In my case since I do not us the VM editor, I can do everything I need with Git.

.gitignore

I actually create a new repo on GitHub and allow the .gitignore file to be create automatically. When I cloned the repo to my local drive the .gitignore file was not brought over to my local directory.

Glenn

Martin Breuss RP Team on July 12, 2021

Hi @Glenn Lehman – gotcha about Git Bash :) Looks like you won’t need it then.

.gitignore

I’ve tried the steps that you described and initialized a new empty repository on GitHub with the suggested .gitignore file by checking the ✅ Add .gitignore option.

Then I pulled the repo to my local machine and looked at the content of the folder. The auto-generated .gitignore file showed up:

➜  Desktop git clone https://github.com/martin-martin/ignoremetest.git
Cloning into 'ignoremetest'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 3, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (3/3), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
Receiving objects: 100% (3/3), done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
➜  Desktop cd ignoremetest 
➜  ignoremetest git:(main) ls -al
total 8
drwxr-xr-x   4 martin  staff   128 Jul 12 09:33 .
drwx------+ 32 martin  staff  1024 Jul 12 09:33 ..
drwxr-xr-x  12 martin  staff   384 Jul 12 09:33 .git
-rw-r--r--   1 martin  staff  1799 Jul 12 09:33 .gitignore

It’s a hidden file, so maybe you need to adapt your folder settings to display hidden files?

Philip GeLinas on Sept. 25, 2021

Well done! Thank you!

andrewodrain on March 22, 2023

Excellent! I can use GitHub the way its supposed to be used now! Thank You!

Duane aK on May 2, 2023

Great, I understand Git/GitHub now! Thanks for your hard work.

Jon Nyquist on June 22, 2023

Nice course. Seems GitHub has changed a few things since this course was published, especially around authentification, but most most of the lessons remain valid.

Danadasa Chan on July 26, 2023

Thank you for this clear tutorial! I now have a handle on git basics, and now it’s time to practice.

jarmo2 on March 14, 2025

Thanks for the quick tutorial. Great to get started. The only thing I was missing is how to connect the terminal and github using ssh.

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