> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://notes.chaicode.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Git behind the scenes

> Learn behind the scenes of git and how it works

Git is a version control system that allows you to track changes to your files and folders. It is a powerful tool that can help you manage your code more effectively. In this section, we will explore the basics of how git works internally.

## Git Snapshots

A git snapshot is a point in time in the history of your code. It represents a specific version of your code, including all the files and folders that were present at that time. Each snapshot is identified by a unique hash code, which is a string of characters that represents the contents of the snapshot.

A snapshot is not an image, it's just a representation of the code at a specific point in time. Snapshot is a loose term that is used when git stores information about the code in a locally stored key-value based database. Everything is stored as an object and each object is identified by a unique hash code.

## 3 Musketeers of Git

The three musketeers of git are:

* Commit Object
* Tree Object
* Blob Object

## Commit Object

Each commit in the project is stored in `.git` folder in the form of a commit object. A commit object contains the following information:

* Tree Object
* Parent Commit Object
* Author
* Committer
* Commit Message

## Tree Object

Tree Object is a container for all the files and folders in the project. It contains the following information:

* File Mode
* File Name
* File Hash
* Parent Tree Object

Everything is stored as key-value pairs in the tree object. The key is the file name and the value is the file hash.

## Blob Object

Blob Object is present in the tree object and contains the actual file content. This is the place where the file content is stored.

<img src="https://mintcdn.com/chaicode-1931df7f/AkNl1GGCF4ImbLdv/images/chai-aur-git/git-behind-scenes.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=AkNl1GGCF4ImbLdv&q=85&s=227a8a41d04a2dea33d3f9f3676b4b5c" alt="Git Behind The Scenes" width="3083" height="1557" data-path="images/chai-aur-git/git-behind-scenes.png" />

## Helpful commands

Here are some helpful commands that you can use to explore the git internals:

```bash theme={null}
git show -s --pretty=raw <commit-hash>
```

Grab tree id from the above command and use it in the following command to get the tree object:

```bash theme={null}
git ls-tree <tree-id>
```

Grab tree id from the above command and use it in the following command to get the blob object:

```bash theme={null}
git show <blob-id>
```

Grab tree id from the above command and use it in the following command to get the commit object:

```bash theme={null}
git cat-file -p <commit-id>
```

<Card title="Next: Branches in Git" icon="arrow-right" href="/git/branches">
  Learn how to work with branches
</Card>