Preparation: Getting Started with Lazygit

Before we delve into the installation process, it’s crucial to ensure that you have the following prerequisites in place:

1. A server running Fedora 39 as the operating system. A fresh OS installation is preferable to avoid potential conflicts.
2. Access to the terminal for executing commands. Fedora 39 provides a Terminal application for this purpose, which can be found in your Applications menu.
3. A stable network connection or internet access to download the Lazygit repository.
4. A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. It’s advisable to operate as a non-root sudo user to avoid accidental harm to your system.

Step 1: Updating System and Installing Dependencies

Before proceeding with the Lazygit installation, it’s essential to prepare your Fedora system by updating it and installing the necessary dependencies. Open your terminal and execute the following commands:

sudo dnf clean all
sudo dnf update

Step 2: Installing Git

Since Lazygit is essentially a terminal UI for Git, it’s essential to have Git installed on your system. If Git isn’t installed, run the following command in your terminal:

sudo dnf install git

Step 3: Setting Up the Copr Repository

Fedora Copr is a repository collection that offers additional packages not available in the official Fedora repositories. To install Lazygit on Fedora 39, we’ll use the ” atim/lazygit ” repository from Copr.

Install the Copr plugin for dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core

After the installation, enable the ” atim/lazygit ” repository by executing:

sudo dnf copr enable atim/lazygit

Step 4: Installing Lazygit on Fedora 39

With the ” atim/lazygit ” repository enabled, Lazygit’s installation is straightforward. Here are the steps to install Lazygit using the dnf package manager:

sudo dnf install lazygit

Wait for the installation process to complete. dnf will automatically resolve any dependencies and install Lazygit along with any necessary packages.

After the installation, it’s important to verify that Lazygit has been correctly installed and is accessible from the terminal. To do this, follow these steps:

lazygit --version

Step 5: Launching Lazygit on Fedora

To launch Lazygit, open your terminal, navigate to the Git repository you wish to manage, and run:

lazygit

Lazygit will open its interface, showing various panels and information about your Git repository.

Step 6: Understanding the Lazygit Interface

The Lazygit interface consists of key panels that provide an overview of your Git repository’s status and allow you to perform common Git operations. Here’s a brief description of each panel:

1. Status Panel: Displays the current branch, staging area, and any modified or untracked files.
2. Files Panel: Lists the files in your repository, enabling you to stage, unstage, or discard changes.
3. Commits Panel: Shows a list of commits in the current branch, allowing you to view, checkout, or interact with specific commits.
4. Stashes Panel: Manages your stashed changes, allowing you to apply, drop, or view stashes.
5. Branches Panel: Lists local and remote branches, facilitating branch management and checkout.

To navigate between panels, use the arrow keys or the specific keybindings displayed at the bottom of each panel.

Step 7: Utilizing Commands and Shortcuts

Lazygit offers intuitive commands and shortcuts to perform common Git operations efficiently. Here are a few essential commands to get you started:

• a: Stage/unstage changes in the Files panel.
• c: Commit staged changes, opening a commit message editor.
• p: Push commits to the remote repository.
• P: Pull changes from the remote repository.
• s: Stash changes, allowing you to switch branches or perform other operations.
• S: View and apply stashed changes.
• b: Checkout a different branch or create a new one.
• q: Quit Lazygit and return to the terminal.

For a comprehensive list of commands and shortcuts, press ? within the Lazygit interface to access the help menu.

Step 8: Staging, Committing, and Pushing Changes

One of the most common workflows in Git involves staging changes, creating a commit, and pushing those changes to a remote repository. Here’s how you can perform these operations using Lazygit:

1. In the Files panel, navigate to the file(s) you want to stage using the arrow keys.
2. Press a to stage the selected file(s). Repeat this process for all the files you want to include in your commit.
3. Once you have staged the desired changes, press c to create a new commit. This will open your default text editor to enter a commit message.
4. Write a descriptive commit message, save the file, and exit the editor. Lazygit will create the commit with the provided message.
5. To push the commit to the remote repository, press p. Lazygit will prompt you to confirm the push operation.

By following these steps, you can easily stage, commit, and push changes to your Git repository using Lazygit’s intuitive interface.

Step 9: Leveraging Interactive Rebasing

Lazygit provides an interactive rebase mode that allows you to easily modify, reorder, or squash commits in your branch history. To initiate an interactive rebase:

1. In the Commits panel, navigate to the commit where you want to start the rebase.
2. Press r to enter the rebase mode.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the commits you want to modify and press e to edit the rebase action for each commit.
4. Once you have configured the desired rebase actions, press w to start the rebase process.

Interactive rebasing is a powerful feature that enables you to clean up and organize your commit history before pushing changes to the remote repository.

Step 10: Cherry-Picking

Cherry-picking allows you to select specific commits from one branch and apply them to another branch. Lazygit makes cherry-picking a breeze:

1. In the Commits panel, navigate to the commit you want to cherry-pick.
2. Press c to initiate the cherry-pick operation.
3. Lazygit will prompt you to select the target branch where you want to apply the commit.
4. Once you’ve selected the target branch, Lazygit will perform the cherry-pick and apply the commit to the chosen branch.

Cherry-picking is useful when you need to selectively apply changes from one branch to another without merging the entire branch.

Step 11: Efficient Git Management

Lazygit offers several tips and best practices to help you manage your Git repositories efficiently:

• Regularly review and prune stale branches to keep your repository clean and organized.
• Use descriptive and concise commit messages to make your commit history more readable and understandable.
• Leverage Lazygit’s search functionality to quickly find specific commits, branches, or stashes.
• Customize Lazygit’s keybindings and configuration to match your preferred workflow and shortcuts.

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Christian Wells