This project is ON HOLD because the GNU Manual Manual (GNU Standards) explicitly points to the GNU Bison Manual as the gold standard. That’s a problem.
I find the GNU Bison Manual to be a brilliant, frustrating, tedious, essential, over-explanatory, under-explanatory, self-indulgent, hyper-pedantic, repetitive, and condescendingly educational bureaucratic masterpiece.
"In order for Bison to parse a language, it must be described by a context-free grammar. This means that you specify one or more syntactic groupings and give rules for constructing them from their parts. For example, in the C language, one kind of grouping is called an ‘expression’. One rule for making an expression might be, “An expression can be made of a minus sign and another expression.” Another would be, “An expression can be an integer.” As you can see, rules are often recursive, but there must be at least one rule which leads out of the recursion."
"In order for Git to effectuate version control over a repository, it is imperative that the repository be structured in a well-defined and logically consistent manner. Specifically, Git employs a directed acyclic graph (DAG) to represent a sequence of immutable snapshots, herein referred to as commits. Each commit embodies the state of the repository at a particular moment and is uniquely identified by a cryptographic hash, ensuring both referential integrity and deterministic retrieval.
Commits are not isolated entities but instead participate in a hierarchical lineage, where each commit—except in the base case—references one or more antecedent commits. This recursive relationship establishes what is conventionally described as the commit history. The most primitive form of a commit, known as the initial commit, lacks predecessors and serves as the foundational element from which all subsequent revisions derive.
To illustrate, consider a software project in which a new commit is instantiated via the act of persisting modifications to the repository. Such a commit, by necessity, incorporates a reference to its immediate predecessor(s), thereby extending the directed graph while maintaining its fundamental acyclic nature. Alternatively, in the case of an uninitialized repository, the commit in question assumes the role of the initial commit and, as such, lacks antecedent references.
It follows, then, that a repository’s state is invariably reducible to a sequence of commits, each of which contributes incrementally to the overall revision history. As is the case with all well-defined recursive structures, there exists a requisite base case—namely, the initial commit—which serves as the termination condition for backward traversal. Consequently, every repository necessarily contains at least one commit, thereby satisfying the foundational requirement of historical continuity."
Gimme a break.
This is why there is no GNU Git Manual.
A GNU Git Manual, written in the spirit of classic Linux HOWTOs
This project aims to create the missing manual for Git—a guide that explains not just what to type, but why Git works the way it does. If you've ever struggled with cryptic error messages, detached HEAD states, or Git rebase nightmares, this manual is for you.
Most Git documentation focuses on commands—which is fine if you already know how Git works. But if you're new, or if you want to truly understand Git’s mental model, you need more than just a list of flags.
This manual is concept-driven rather than command-driven. It will teach Git from first principles, giving you the tools to reason through problems instead of memorizing commands blindly.
Because Git is amazing—but only once you understand it.
Because the Git man pages are reference materials, not a learning resource.
Because most tutorials either oversimplify Git or throw you in the deep end.
Because old-school HOWTOs had the right idea: explain things in a way that makes sense to both humans and machines.
- Beginners who want to understand Git properly, not just copy-paste commands.
- Intermediate users who need to untangle messy repositories and bad merges.
- Sysadmins & DevOps who need to wield Git with confidence in production.
- Anyone who wants to stop fighting Git and start using it effectively.
- What Git Really Is (and Isn’t)
- The Three States: Working Directory, Staging Area, Repository
- Commits, Trees, and DAGs: How Git Stores Data
- HEAD, Branches, and Refs: Following the Breadcrumbs
- Cloning, Pulling, Pushing, Oh My
- Committing and Staging: Adding to the Timeline
- Branching and Merging: Forks in the Road
- Undoing Mistakes: Revert, Reset, and Checkout
- Rebasing Without Fear
- The Detached HEAD Problem (and How to Escape It)
- Cherry-Picking: Git’s Time Machine
- Bisecting Bugs: Let Git Find the Problem for You
- Git Hooks: Automate Everything
- Submodules and Subtrees: Managing Dependencies
- Resolving Merge Conflicts Like a Pro
- Recovering Lost Commits
- Keeping a Clean Git History
- Git Workflows: What Works and What Doesn’t
- Using Git Without Quit
This is a GNU project, licensed under GPL v3.0 to keep it free and open.
- Found something confusing in Git? Open an issue!
- Have a real-world example of a Git disaster? Share it!
- Know an explanation that makes Git click? PRs welcome!
© 2025, Michael John Vera. Licensed under GPL v3.0.
This manual is free as in freedom, because documentation should never be locked behind paywalls.
Git is powerful, confusing, and sometimes infuriating—but it doesn’t have to be.
If you’ve ever typed git reset --hard while praying, this manual is for you.
Let’s make Git understandable for humans.