World 1: Save Points

Three places your work lives

You will learn: the three places Git keeps your work.

The problem

You pressed save in your editor. So Git saved it too, right? Not yet! Your work can sit in three places.

Watch

Place 1 is the working folder. These are your normal files. You edit them here.

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Place 2 is the staging area, a box. git add puts ready changes in the box.

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Place 3 is the repository. git commit takes a photo of the box and keeps it here, safe.

Predict

You make a new file, notes.txt. Where is it now?

Predict

You type git add notes.txt. Where is it now?

Predict

You type git commit -m "Add notes". Where does the saved copy go?

You did it!

You can now name the three places your work lives.

Go deeper (optional)

You will meet other names for these places. The working folder is also called the working tree. The staging area is also called the index. The repository lives inside the hidden .git folder.