add, commit, log

What you will be able to do

• Stage files with git add
• Create commits with clear messages
• Read history with git log

Why this matters for data work

A commit is a snapshot you can name in a PR or incident review. Messages like “fix” waste everyone’s time; “add revenue_by_store.sql” does not.

Concepts

• Staging area — what the next commit will include
• git commit -m "message"
• git log --oneline — compact history
• Commits need a configured user.name / email (Getting Started)

Practice on your machine

cd ~/dcubes/git-lab/init-demo
git add README.md
git commit -m "Add README for init-demo"
git log --oneline

cat > hello.txt << 'EOF'
hello git
EOF
git add hello.txt
git commit -m "Add hello.txt"
git log --oneline

What you should see

• Two commits on main (or your default branch).
• Clean git status (“nothing to commit”).

Common mistakes

• Huge unrelated commits — split by idea.
• Secrets in a commit — rotate the secret; history rewrite is advanced (avoid for now).

Next

gitignore