Working directory state in Git - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Understanding Git Working Directory State

📖 Scenario: You are working on a small project using Git to manage your files. You want to understand how Git tracks changes in your working directory before you commit them.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to check the state of your working directory using Git commands to see which files are modified, staged, or untracked.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a new file in the working directory

Modify the file

Use Git commands to check the working directory state

Understand the output of git status

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Developers use Git to track changes in their project files. Understanding the working directory state helps avoid mistakes before committing code.

💼 Career

Knowing how to check and interpret the working directory state is essential for software developers, DevOps engineers, and anyone collaborating on code.

1

Create a new file in the working directory

Create a new file called example.txt with the exact content Hello, Git! in your working directory.

Git

# Create a file named example.txt with content 'Hello, Git!'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

You can use the echo command to create a file with content.

2

Initialize Git repository, stage, and commit the file

Initialize a Git repository in the current directory using git init, add the file example.txt to the staging area using git add example.txt, and commit it using git commit -m "Initial commit".

Git

echo "Hello, Git!" > example.txt
# Initialize Git repository, stage and commit example.txt
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use git init to start a new repository, git add to stage files, and git commit -m "Initial commit" to commit them.

3

Modify the file and check working directory state

Modify the file example.txt by adding the line Welcome to Git learning. Then use git status to check the state of your working directory.

Git

echo "Hello, Git!" > example.txt
git init
git add example.txt
git commit -m "Initial commit"
# Append 'Welcome to Git learning.' to example.txt
# Use git status to check working directory state
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use >> to append text to a file. Then run git status to see changes.

4

Display the output of git status

Run git status and display the output showing that example.txt has been modified but not staged.

Git

echo "Hello, Git!" > example.txt
git init
git add example.txt
git commit -m "Initial commit"
echo "Welcome to Git learning." >> example.txt
# Run git status and print the output
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The output of git status should list example.txt as modified but not staged.