Understanding Git Commands for a New Repository

In the world of software development, Git has established itself as an essential tool for version control. It allows developers to keep track of changes made to their code over time effectively. This ability to manage and control versions of your code can be a game-changer for any software development project.

Looking at the question asked, we know that the command git commit -m "Your commit message" is the correct answer that does not work right after creating a new Git repository and a file named git_file.html. But why is this so?

Committing Without Adding Changes

The reason why git commit -m "Your commit message" will not work as expected in this scenario is simply because you haven't told Git which changes you want to commit.

When you initialize a Git repository and create a file, you've made changes in your working directory. However, Git does not automatically track every file in your working directory. You must tell Git which files or changes you want it to keep track of. This is achieved with the git add command.

For instance, git add git_file.html tells Git to track the git_file.html file. Similarly, git add . adds all new, modified, and deleted files in the current directory and its subdirectories to the staging area, preparing them for a commit.

Once you've added files to the staging area with the git add command, you can then use git commit -m "Your commit message" to create a new version of your code that includes those changes.

In our context, if you try to commit changes right after creating a file without adding them to the staging area, Git will not find any changes to commit, and so the git commit command will not work as expected.

Status of Changes in Working Directory

Another useful command is git status. This command shows you the state of your working directory and staging area. It lists out all the files that have been modified, added (but not committed), or deleted (but not committed).

In a new repository with the git_file.html file created, git status will show this file as "Untracked Files". This gives us hints about what changes in our working directory Git is not keeping track of.

Conclusion

In conclusion, understanding the roles of git add, git commit, and git status is essential for efficient version control with Git. They work together to help software developers track, prepare, and save changes in their code.

Remember that Git does not automatically track every change in a working directory. You must manually tell it which changes to track. Therefore, always ensure that relevant changes are added to the staging area before running git commit command.

The beauty of Git lies in its power and flexibility, allowing developers to control how, when, and what parts of their code changes should be versioned.