An incomplete list of great Git tutorials

This is my curated list of Git tutorials, organized by depth: quick introductions first, then complete guides, then videos.

Why a list? Git is one of those tools where a single tutorial rarely does the job. The commands are easy to memorize, but the mental model behind them takes longer to click. Different resources explain it from different angles, and the angle that works for you depends on where you’re starting from.

My advice: pick one introductory tutorial and actually follow along in a terminal. Reading about Git without typing the commands doesn’t stick.

If you’re just looking for a specific command, try my free Git command finder: describe the goal, get the command.

Introductory tutorials

These get you productive fast: init, commit, branch, push, pull. Start here if you’re new. The visual guides are especially useful for understanding what branching actually does, because Git is much easier to reason about once you can picture the commit graph.

• The GitHub guide by Flavio
• The GitHub tutorial
• The Github Git Cheat Sheet
• Intro to github by Gun.io
• Intro to git for web designers by WebDesigner Depot
• Git Visual Guide
• Think Like (a) Git
• Everyday GIT With 20 Commands Or So by kernel.org

Think Like (a) Git deserves a special mention. It focuses entirely on the graph model behind Git, which is exactly the part most beginners skip and then pay for later.

Complete and deep guides

Once the basics feel comfortable, these take you further: how Git stores data, how branches really work under the hood, and the workflows teams use every day.

The Pro Git book is the reference here. It’s the official book, it’s free to read online, and it goes from first commit to Git internals. You don’t need to read it cover to cover: use it as the place to go when a concept feels fuzzy.

• Pro Git book
• Git from bottom up
• Git Ready
• Git magic
• Git Immersion

Git Immersion is different from the others: it’s a guided lab you work through step by step in the terminal, which is my preferred way to learn a tool like this.

Interesting Videos about Git

Videos work well for the big picture. The Linus Torvalds talk is a classic: he created Git, and hearing him explain the design decisions (and rant about other version control systems) tells you a lot about why Git works the way it does.

• Introduction to Git by Scott Chacon of GitHub, 2011
• Linus Torvalds on git at Google Tech Talks 2007
• Randal Schwartz talks about Git at Google Tech Talks 2007
• Getting Started with Git by IAmTimCorey
• Git Tutorial for Beginners: Command-Line Fundamentals

One warning: some of the older links may have moved or changed since I collected them. The concepts they teach haven’t. Git’s core model has been stable for years, so even a 2007 talk still explains today’s Git accurately.

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