What are the git concepts of HEAD master origin

Question

As I m learning about git  I keep coming across the terms HEAD  master  origin  and I m not sure what the differences are  If I understand correctly  HEAD is always equal to the latest revision  And if so  is that the latest revision of the whole repository  or of a specific branch or tag  This is so confusing  I ve read so many tutorials on this and things like branching merging  but still can t wrap my head around it

User · Answer

HEAD is not the latest revision  it s the current revision  Usually  it s the latest revision of the current branch  but it doesn t have to be   master is a name commonly given to the main branch  but it could be called anything else  or there could be no main branch    origin is a name commonly given to the main remote  remote is another repository that you can pull from and push to  Usually it s on some server  like github

User · Answer

I highly recommend the book  Pro Git  by Scott Chacon  Take time and really read it  while exploring an actual git repo as you do     HEAD  the current commit your repo is on  Most of the time HEAD points to the latest commit in your current branch  but that doesn t have to be the case  HEAD really just means  what is my repo currently pointing at    In the event that the commit HEAD refers to is not the tip of any branch  this is called a  detached head    master  the name of the default branch that git creates for you when first creating a repo  In most cases   master  means  the main branch   Most shops have everyone pushing to master  and master is considered the definitive view of the repo  But it s also common for release branches to be made off of master for releasing  Your local repo has its own master branch  that almost always follows the master of a remote repo   origin  the default name that git gives to your main remote repo  Your box has its own repo  and you most likely push out to some remote repo that you and all your coworkers push to  That remote repo is almost always called origin  but it doesn t have to be   HEAD is an official notion in git  HEAD always has a well-defined meaning  master and origin are common names usually used in git  but they don t have to be

User · Answer

While this doesn t directly answer the question  there is great book available for free which will help you learn the basics called ProGit  If you would prefer the dead-wood version to a collection of bits you can purchase it from Amazon

[git] What are the git concepts of HEAD, master, origin?

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