DevOps + Git + GitHub: Cooking Up Collaboration with Commands

Think of DevOps as a high-speed kitchen, Git as your recipe book, and GitHub as the shared workspace where everyone preps and plates together. In this quick guide, we’ll show how DevOps engineers blend these tools to serve up smooth deployments using everyday commands, all seasoned with tasty food and restaurant metaphors!

Quick Refresher: What’s DevOps?

DevOps is like running a restaurant kitchen where the chefs (developers) and the servers & managers (operations) work in perfect harmony.

Goal: Serve hot, high-quality food (software) to customers quickly, safely, and reliably.

Git and GitHub are essential tools that help DevOps teams manage recipes (code), share tasks, and keep the kitchen flowing smoothly.

Git + GitHub in DevOps: A Kitchen Example

Scenario:

You’re introducing a new burger to the menu.

1. Chef writes the new burger recipe 🍔 → Git commit

2. Shares it with the team → Push to GitHub

3. Other chefs suggest improvements → Pull requests & code reviews

4. Once it’s approved → Merge to main branch

5. Ops team delivers it to customers → CI/CD deployment

DevOps Engineer: The Kitchen Supervisor

image source - https://englishpluspodcast.com

A DevOps engineer ensures:

• All chefs (developers) use the same recipe format (coding standards)

• Recipes are stored, versioned, and reviewed (via Git)

• New dishes go from kitchen to customer smoothly (automated deployment)

• Kitchen stays clean (monitoring, logs, rollback)

So, DevOps engineers are like kitchen supervisors who automate and organize everything so the team works faster and smarter.

Real DevOps Tasks Involving Git

Here’s what a DevOps engineer might do with Git and GitHub daily:

• Clone code from GitHub to configure automated builds

• Check if new code broke the build or introduced bugs

• Merge approved changes from developers

• Manage Git branches for testing and production

• Roll back code if something breaks

• Write scripts for continuous deployment

Here are the top Git commands DevOps engineers use daily, along with their real-world meaning and a fun food analogy:

1. git init

Real Meaning: Starts a new Git repository (project tracking).
Food Analogy: Like opening a brand-new recipe notebook for your kitchen.

git init

2. git clone <repo-url>

Real Meaning: Copies a GitHub project to your computer.
Food Analogy: Downloading a famous recipe from the cloud to your kitchen to try it out.

git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git

3. git status

Real Meaning: Shows current file changes, untracked files, and what’s staged.
Food Analogy: Peeking at your kitchen counter to see what ingredients are out.

git status

4. git add .

Real Meaning: Stages all changes (prepares them to be saved).
Food Analogy: Lining up all your ingredients on the counter for the head chef to check.

git add .

5. git commit -m "message"

Real Meaning: Saves a version of your staged changes with a note.
Food Analogy: Writing down the final version of today’s dish in your logbook with a label like “extra cheese added.”

git commit -m "Added cheese to pasta"

6. git push

Real Meaning: Uploads your saved work to GitHub.
Food Analogy: Sending the new recipe to the central kitchen server so everyone gets the update.

git push origin main

7. git pull

Real Meaning: Brings the latest code from GitHub to your computer.
Food Analogy: Bringing in the latest recipe changes from the head chef before you start cooking.

git pull origin main

8. git branch

Real Meaning: Lists or creates a branch (a separate version of the code).
Food Analogy: Trying a new variation of your recipe without touching the original one.

git branch               # View branches

git branch new-dish      # Create new branch

9. git checkout branch-name

Real Meaning: Switches between branches.
Food Analogy: Going from one version of your recipe to another.

git checkout new-dish

10. git merge branch-name

Real Meaning: Combines one branch into another.
Food Analogy: Taking the new ingredients from your test version and adding them to the main kitchen recipe.

git checkout main

git merge new-dish

11. git reset or git revert

Real Meaning: Undo changes or go back in time.
Food Analogy: “Oops, added too much salt!” roll back to the earlier version.

git reset --hard HEAD~1     # Reset to previous commit

git revert <commit-id>      # Undo one commit

12. git stash

Real Meaning: Temporarily saves your work to clean the workspace.
Food Analogy: Tucking away ingredients mid-prep to deal with an urgent order.

git stash

13. git log

Real Meaning: Shows the history of all changes (commits).
Food Analogy: Looking through your kitchen notebook to see every version of your dish.

git log

14. git remote -v

Real Meaning: Shows the link between local and GitHub repo.
Food Analogy: Checking which central kitchen (GitHub) your recipe book syncs to.

git remote -v

Summary for DevOps Starters

Conclusion :

DevOps is like a well-run kitchen Git tracks your recipes, GitHub is where the team collaborates, and Git commands keep everything flowing smoothly. With the right tools and teamwork, delivering great software becomes as seamless as serving a perfect dish. 🍽️

To recap:

• Git: Tracks all recipe (code) changes

• GitHub: Online kitchen to collaborate with chefs (developers)

• DevOps: Ensures smooth flow from kitchen to customer

• DevOps engineers: Automate the kitchen, check quality, and keep things moving fast and safe

• Git commands: Everyday tools to manage your cooking process

Connect with me on LinkedIn : SwethaMaran