Question

I’m a single developer that has always just developed over FTP to a development server and then moved the files into production when ready. I’ve been interested in using git and GitHub for quite a while now, and I’ve finally got a good excuse now with a new project I’m starting. However, it seems tedious to have to do:

git add file1.php
git add file2.php
git commit -m 'updated file1 & 2'
git push origin master

Then after that is in the repo on GitHub, SSH into my server, go to the correct directory, and do:

git pull

each time I make any change to the code. This is apposed to editing in something like Coda and then just clicking command+S.

Is there a better (maybe more automated) way of doing this? I know there is a GitHub for Mac app which is quite nice and helps with the first part, but I still have to login to SSH to update anything, which can get tedious after a few dozen updates in an afternoon.

I’ve also seen that I can add a post-hook, so I could call a PHP script to execute the git pull on each commit, but I feel like there could be some security issues with that, and not to mention the issue with that script failing since it can’t enter the passphrase.

Answer 1

I strongly suggest you read the ProGit book http://progit.org/

No, there are much faster ways of doing this.

Once you have the files added, you can simple git commit -a -m "Change descriptions"

In order to add the files, you can git add . which will recursively add all non-ignored files.

If you have a tracking relationship set up with your branches, all you need to say is git push. Only if someone else makes a change do you need to git pull

There are of course many IDEs which will help manage git, and git guis of various breeds.
https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Interfaces,_frontends,_and_tools

But really there are only a handful of commands you need to know to do it from the command line.

• Everyday commands

These commands you will be using every single day

git pull --rebase    # Getting changes other people made.  Using rebase is my personal preference
git commit -a -m msg # Committing your work
git push             # Sharing changes with others
git status           # Finding out what you have not committed/pushed
git diff             # Finding out what changed

• Occasional commands

These commands you will use only on setup or rarely

git init                 # Set up a new git repo
git clone URL            # Set up a git repo from the master source
git add <file/directory> # Mark a change specifically for commit

I would like to reiterate that git is not a web deployment system. However, if you are trying to do something like that, some people have had success with http://toroid.org/ams/git-website-howto