Has this ever happened to you? You’ve been up all night working on a document and suddenly the computer crashes. Was your hard work saved? Did you have a backup?
I’m sure everyone has had this experience at some point. I used to save multiple versions of the same file over and over again every time I had made a significant change. This technique worked but I would often have tens or twenties of versions of files by the end, and it would be difficult to know what was in each version or why it was saved.
Then I discovered the concept of version control and a free program called Git. Now, I could record and backup every change made to a project without saving multiple iterations. Many applications have their own backup and recovery procedures, but they may vary across projects and types of files you’re using. This is why Git is so helpful: you can use it to manage virtually any kind of project and all kinds of files.
All of our hosting plans now allow you to create free Git repositories for managing your projects.
What’s The Big Deal With Version Control?
Using version control on a project is like recording all your work on a tape. (Does anyone remember tape?) When you have a project under version control, you can record and document the progress as you go with “commits”. And you can rewind your project to see what it looked like at various commits. You can even roll back to that previous commit.
You can also record diversions and try things out with “branches”. If you like what you did on a divergent branch, you can “merge” those changes into the “master” branch.
Basically, version control gives you complete control over change you ever made to your project. And if you have multiple participants, you can see who did what and when.
If you’re an obsessive nerd about your files then version control was made for you.
Version Control Lets You Move Files Around With Ease (Even On Your VPS)
As mentioned above, you can create a repository on your InMotion Hosting server to host your files. This feature is available at all tiers, however, we recommend a VPS (Virtual Private Server) so you or your IT person can set stricter security policies when adding users to your repositories.
And, in addition to hosting your repository on your own server, you have GitHub, a popular Git host, also available to you.
Having your files hosted in multiple locations means never being stuck without a backup.
Learn How To Use Git Today
If you’re interested in learning how you can use Git version control on your projects, be sure to follow along with our guided tutorials. And, as always, if you have any comments or questions our hosting experts are available to talk to you 24/7.
