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Git

SFBy Sitraka Forler · Lecturer, Durham Business School·Updated 13 September 2026· About this site

A version control tool that records the changes you commit to a project as a history.

Git is installed on your own computer and saves snapshots of your files, called commits, so you can see who changed what and roll back a mistake. Branches let you build a change in isolation before it joins the shared main branch. Git is the tool; GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket are websites that host Git repositories (project folders tracked by Git) so a team can share and review them.

# what has changed?
git status
# start a branch
git checkout -b feature/sharpe
# stage the change
git add returns.py
# save a snapshot locally
git commit -m "feat: add Sharpe ratio"
# upload the branch
git push -u origin feature/sharpe