Version Control with Git

Now that we have a fresh and working Rails application, we’ll take a moment for a step that, while technically optional, would be viewed by many Rails developers as practically essential, namely, placing our application source code under version control. Version control systems allow us to track changes to our project’s code, collaborate more easily, and roll back any inadvertent errors (such as accidentally deleting files). Knowing how to use a version control system is a required skill for every software developer. There are many options for version control, but the Rails community has largely standardized on Git, a distributed version control system originally developed by Linus Torvalds to host the Linux kernel. Git is a large subject, and we’ll only be scratching the surface in this book, but there are many good free resources online; I especially recommend Pro Git by Scott Chacon (Apress, 2009). Putting your source code under version control with Git is strongly recommended, not only because it’s nearly a universal practice in the Rails world, but also because it will allow you to share your code more easily (Section 1.3.4) and deploy your application right here in the first chapter (Section 1.4)