Tag: DevOps

Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers. This is also a part of a basic series on git and how to use it.

In a few previous posts I’ve looked at getting going with git, and in this post we continue by looking at how we can get some information about the actions we’ve taken.

If we want to see what has happened in our repo, lots of clients will show a list of changes, but from the command line we use a simple “git log”. When I do this, I see the reverse chronological view of commits.

There are a lot of options for the log command, but there are a few I use often.

Limit Entries

I often use a –n, where n is a number, to limit what’s returned. For example, I’ll use –3 to show the last 3 commits.

I also like the –p option, which will show differences. As you can see here, I added the UserRoles.SQL file, putting in new lines.

At times, I like the –decorate option, which lets me know which branch was affected. This is helpful if I’m moving around on branches and I get confused. That does happen.

There are lots of search options, and I use them at times, but rarely, so I’m usually searching for the documentation to know the dates or patterns. I do look at the –committer= syntax with my name. That lets me find my changes among others.

I also like to keep things small, so using the –pretty=oneline option is handy.

Now I can easily see what I’ve done lately.

There are lots of ways to look at history, and certainly a client makes things easier, but I’d say that you should learn the command line, just in case there’s some issue and your client doesn’t display it properly.

Last thing, when you run git log and end up with a colon prompt, you’re in the less utility (I think, been a long time since Unix). To get out just type:

q

Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers. This is also a part of a basic series on git and how to use it.

In the course of normal work, you’ll change your code files. Git requires that you specify those changes that you want to commit, and those that you don’t. This means I can make changes to a few files, but not commit all those changes.

For example, let’s say that I add a couple files to my repo. I’ll add the Tables/Log.sql and Views/LogView.sql to my repo. This will give me a status in git that shows these are new files. In this case, I see the folders as they are new as well.

If I add these files as being tracked, I’ll use “git add Tables” to add that folder and file. I get a new status.

Here my Log.sql file is being tracked (and the folder) as changes that are staged to be committed. If I commit now, I’ll get just that file added, but not Views\LogView.sql.

Staged and Changed

There is one strange thing I’ve run into, at least, strange to me. If I stage my Views folder, I’ll get this:

Now I’ll change the LogView.sql file, removing the SELECT * and adding columns. When I check the status, I now see the file in both the staged and unstaged areas.

This is allowed, but if I commit, I’ll get the original version of LogView.sql as it existed when I ran the git add command. See below that after my commit, I still see the modified file.

If  I add and commit that file, I can use git log to see the actual changes. See the line in red with the – is the original line, while the green line with + is the change.

Git add and git commit are the main ways you’ll commit files. If you have issues with a GUI client, then this is a good way for you to debug and clean up your repo. Knowing the command line is always the best way to truly understand what is happening.