Learn Git in a Month of Lunches

This book has the best explanations (for me) on Git. The author has taught Git and version control for many years and he has developed explanations that work. While Git is an amazing and wonderful tool (thanks, Linus!) it is actually not simple and not straightforward. You must understand the concepts behind the commands to be successful. And you must become proficient using the command line to really be successful with Git and remote repositories (such as Github, Bitbucket, Gitlab, etc...). There is a little summary at the end of each chapter that lists the concepts and commands introduced in that chapter. Git is such a big and essential subject for tens of millions of developers, that several great books exist on the Git. This is definitely one of them.

It's very difficult to beat the exercises in this book. They're all very well thought out and you learn a lot by completing them. I was also surprised at how accurate the time projections are for each of the chapters. Generally they take around 40 minutes to complete and you might spend an additional 20 minutes on the exercises. Definitely doable In a month of lunches. Now, as for the rest of the content. Overall the explanations were clear and I rarely found myself rereading any material. Everything builds on and revisits the content that came before it. I also really appreciate the "try it now" snippets where the author demos a command, and encourages you to apply it before escapes your consciousness. To sum up this review, I appreciate that the author considers the notion of a busy schedule getting the way of learning. Its clear that they really tried to make these chapters short, sweet, and to the point.

I've been using git for years without really knowing how powerful it was. I had tried to wade through the documentation on the git site and elsewhere, and looked through Pro Git. I mostly came away intimidated and confused. This book got me out of the habit of just using github like a backup drive and into dynamic versioning of my projects. It somehow manages to be approachable and quick to read, but with a satisfying amount of depth on all the topics I've needed in my use of git.Advanced git users won't really benefit, though. This one is just for us beginners.

I never write reviews, but this is the best technology book I have ever read. I wish all instructional books were written with as much clarity, brevity and thought as this one. It walks you through baby steps all the way to the complicated concepts without blasting you with theory or complicated examples. It teaches you the building blocks so you can build the castle yourself. Kudos to Rick Umali and Manning.

If you need to learn Git, I strongly recommend this book.First, don't be put off by the book's title. I worked through it in a few evenings.More importantly, "Learn Git in a Month of Lunches" is the only book that has actually enabled me to put Git to work. The key to the book's success is that each chapter is built around a series of "Try It Now" hands-on exercises accompanied by downloadable example files. Performing each exercise's commands and both seeing the results and having them cogently explained did more to demystify Git than any other Git learning resource I've found.Manning Press also provides a Web site for the book where one can get questions answered. I asked a question and received a response from the book's author in less than one day.However, I won't give this version of the book five stars because there are some typos and inaccuracies here and there. None of them are fatal (the book is actually pretty well edited overall) and the book's Web site provides corrections for many of them. But an otherwise well-deserved fifth star is pending an updated version that corrects those relatively small glitches.Long story short, if you need to learn Git, and have been unsuccessful with other books or tutorials, then this is the book you need. I learned enough from this book that I'm now -- wait for it -- a recreational user of Git. Which is to say that I now use Git in conjunction with a couple of online repositories to manage my own project files *even though I don't have to*. In other words, the book enabled me to put Git to work...

I like the style, and you can either read every word for the full picture, it you can move on when you feel you've got it.