Creating a Repository: git init

What is a Repository?

A repository (or repo) is a folder whose files are tracked by Git. When you initialize a repo, Git creates a hidden .git folder inside it to store the history.

Starting a New Repository

# Create and enter a project folder
mkdir my-project
cd my-project
Initialize Git tracking
git init

Output:

Initialized empty Git repository in /home/you/my-project/.git/

What Happens?

When you run git init, Git creates a hidden .git/ folder:

my-project/
├── .git/          ← Git's internal data (don't touch!)
│   ├── HEAD
│   ├── config
│   ├── objects/
│   └── refs/
└── (your files go here)

Checking the Status

After initializing, check the status:

git status

Output:

On branch main
No commits yet
nothing to commit

This tells you:

• You're on the main branch
• There are no commits yet
• There's nothing to commit (no files yet)

Important Rules

• One repo per project — Don't nest repos inside repos
• Don't init inside home — Always create a specific project folder first
• The .git folder is sacred — Never manually edit files inside .git/

Summary