Chapter Three · Core Git
The History You Are Building
A short chapter about reading rather than writing: how to page through the log without getting stuck, what a commit actually holds, how to find out who changed a line and why, and the question nobody answers for beginners — how much belongs in one commit.
Sandpiper has a history now. This chapter is about reading it rather than adding to it, which is a different skill and a shorter chapter.
Four topics. First the log: the project's diary, newest entry first, plus how to make it readable and how to escape the pager that traps everyone exactly once. Then what a commit actually holds — four things, no more — and the consequence that explains half of Chapter 4. Then the two questions that come up daily on real projects: what did this commit do, and who changed this line and why. And finally the question nobody answers for beginners, which is how much work belongs in a single commit.
By the end of the chapter the four questions from the very first page — what changed, when, why and who — are all answerable in about ten seconds.