What is the .git folder?

Question

What is the folder called .git?

It\'s created in a repository. What is contained within it and why is created?

Answer 1

Basiclly, it means your dir is handled by Git (Git repository). If you move it somewhere else (or delete it), you'll face something like:

fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

every time you use 'git *' command there.

You can move the .git directory somewhere else using:

git --git-dir=/myproject_path/myproject.git log --oneline

Or:

export GIT_DIR=/myproject_path/myproject.git

But i don't recommend doing it. Pay attention that it is only 1 folder, unlike SVN.

It holds all relevant info for GIT to handle your code, like the position of the HEAD, hooks to apply before/after commit/push and some other files.

Maybe most "famous" file inside is the config file which holds all your branches info.

Recommend to read here more info.