Day 60 – Understanding Version Control

Today, I took a step back from AWS deployments to focus on something equally important in software development — Version Control Systems (VCS) and Git.

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🔹 What is Version Control?

Version Control is a system that records changes to files over time so you can recall specific versions later.
It acts like a “time machine” for your project — letting you track, manage, and collaborate on code without overwriting each other’s work.

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🔹 Why Use Version Control?

• Track Changes – See what changed, when, and by whom

• Revert Easily – Roll back to a previous version if something breaks

• Collaboration – Multiple developers can work on the same project without conflicts

• Backup – Your code is safely stored in repositories

• Branching & Merging – Work on features or bug fixes in isolation

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🔹 Types of Version Control

1. Local Version Control – Stores versions on a single local system (limited, outdated)

2. Centralized Version Control (CVCS) – A single server stores all versions (e.g., Subversion, CVS)

3. Distributed Version Control (DVCS) – Every developer has a full copy of the repository (e.g., Git, Mercurial)

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🔹 What is Git?

• Git is a distributed version control system created by Linus Torvalds in 2005.

• It is now the most widely used VCS in the world — powering platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.

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🔹 Why Use Git?

• Speed – Local operations are lightning-fast

• Branching – Lightweight branches make parallel development easy

• Distributed – Every developer has a full project history locally

• Collaboration – Seamless teamwork with pull requests and merges

• Open Source – Free to use, supported by a huge community

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🔹 Git Basic Workflow

1. Clone – Copy the repo to your local machine

2. Branch – Create a new branch for your work

3. Commit – Save your changes with a message

4. Push – Send changes to the remote repository

5. Pull – Get updates from the remote repository

Example:

git clone <repo_url>
git checkout -b feature-branch
git add .
git commit -m "Added new feature"
git push origin feature-branch

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✅ Takeaway: Version control is essential for collaboration, safety, and productivity — and Git is the best tool to make it happen.