Working with Git

CLI or GUI?

Should you know how to use Git's CLI (command line interface) or is a GUI enough? In this guide, we primarily focus on the CLI for multiple reasons:

• It helps with understanding. Some GUI clients use their own abstractions to make Git easier to use for beginners, but at a cost of less accurate understanding of the underlying metaphors.
• It's the "standard" way to use Git. If you need to help a colleague or client on their computer, or remotely log into a virtual machine without your favorite tools, the CLI is what you can count on. It will be the same across computers and operating systems.
• It can be faster and more productive than a GUI if you're used to it, with things like tab completion and custom aliases. It's also scriptable if you're an advanced CLI user. We consider this the least important reason, though, since you can also be quick with a GUI and the speed of using Git is probably not your productivity bottleneck.

So yes, if you're a developer working with a team on commercial software, you should know at least the basics of the Git CLI, even if you choose to use a GUI-based Git client for day to day development work. If you're not a developer and only use Git to version some files while working alone (like versioning your book or master's thesis), you're probably fine with using a Git GUI and treating it just as an incremental backup tool, but then this guide is probably not for you.