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Commit

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Also called Revision, Snapshot

A saved snapshot of your project's files at a specific point in time. It permanently records changes made to the codebase along with a descriptive message.

What it is

A commit represents a specific state of your repository's history. When you commit, Git stores a snapshot of your staged changes, authorship metadata, and a pointer to the parent commit(s). It serves as a discrete, rollback-capable unit of work.

When you would use it

You create a commit after finishing a logical unit of work, ensuring your progress is safely recorded before moving on to the next task.

Common operations

  • Saving a completed feature or bug fix.
  • Reverting a codebase to a previous stable state.
  • Reviewing the history of changes to a specific file.

Related terms

Where this is taught

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