In this chapter, we learnt how to develop with Git and add to the project history by creating new commits and new lines of development (branches). We know what it means to create a commit, to amend a commit, to create a branch, to switch a branch, to rewind a branch, and to delete a branch from the point of view of the Directed Acyclic Graph of revisions.

This chapter shown a very important Git feature—the staging area for creating commits, also known as the index. This is what makes it possible to untangle the changes to the working directory by selectively and interactively choosing what to commit.

We learnt how to examine the changes to the working area before creating a commit. This chapter described, in detail, the extended unified diff format that Git uses to describe the changes.

We also learnt about the concept of detached HEAD (or anonymous branch) and of orphan branches.

In the next chapter, Managing Your Worktree, we will learn how to use Git to prepare new commits and how to configure it to make our work easier. We will also learn how to examine, search, and study the contents of the working directory, the staging area, and the project history. We will also see how to use Git to deal with interruptions and recover from mistakes.