Using a source control repository is a key aspect of software development, Infrastructure as Code, and DevOps. There are a number of different options for source control, but the one that most of the industry has currently settled on is Git. You can read in our previous posts why we use Git and how we use a Git repository on Visual Studio Team Services.

There are many resources to get you started with using Git, so rather than re-invent the wheel, we thought it best just to provide a few pointers to some of the better ones that we’ve found:

• Code School has a number of Git courses, including a free introductory one. Code School’s courses are really good because they are mostly interactive. They have free beginner courses for lots of other things that you might want to check out too.
• Tutorialzine’s Learn Git in 30 Minutes is really well written, covering the key information and then offering links for further reading and a handy cheat-sheet.
• Branching is one of the most interesting aspects of Git, and a good way to learn all about that is with the interactive tutorial at Learn Git Branching.

You don’t need to go through all of those, but any one of them should be enough to get you going with what we see as a vital skill in the future for sys admins as well as developers.