Git FAQs

Turn an already existing directory into a Git Repository

Its easy to turn an already existing directory into its own repository.

1. cd into your directory.
2. Tell git to create a repository:
   • git init
3. Add all your files to the repository:
   • git add .
4. Check that you didn't add any undesired files:
   • git status
5. Remove any undesired files (if necessary):
   • git reset HEAD filename1 filename2
6. Commit the files:
   • git commit -m Initialize the repository with all the files

Continue to the next section if you want to create a bare repository for it to push to/pull from.

Create a remote bare Git repository for a repository to push to/pull from

1. cd to where you want the remote repository located.
2. Create the bare repository.
   • git init --bare --shared bareRepoName
3. cd to your repository that you want link to this bare repository.
4. Set the remote.
   • git remote add origin path to/url for your bare repository
5. Set the configuration for pulling.
   • git config branch.master.remote origin
   • git config branch.master.merge refs/heads/master
6. Push your files to the bare repository (must specify origin master since this is the first push to the empty repository)
   • git push origin master

You can now operate as if you had cloned from bareRepoName.