Git has become ubiquitous as the preferred version control system (VCS) used by developers. Using Git adds immense value especially for engineering teams where several developers work together since it becomes critical to have a system of integrating everyone’s code reliably.

But with every powerful tool, especially one that involves collaboration with others, it is better to establish conventions to follow lest we shoot ourselves in the foot.

At DeepSource, we’ve put together some guiding principles for our own team that make working with a VCS like Git easier. Here are 5 simple rules you can follow:

1. Make Clean, Single-Purpose Commits

Oftentimes programmers working on something get sidetracked into doing too many things when working on one particular thing — like when you are trying to fix one particular bug and you spot another one, and you can’t resist the urge to fix that as well. And another one. Soon, it snowballs and you end up with so many changes all going together in one commit.

This is problematic, and it is better to keep commits as small and focused as possible for many reasons, including:

• It makes it easier for other people in the team to look at your change, making code reviews more efficient.
• If the commit has to be rolled back completely, it’s far easier to do so.
• It’s straightforward to track these changes with your ticketing system.

Additionally, it helps you mentally parse changes you’ve made using git log.

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