Git & GitHub — FAQ¶

Answers for learners on the Git & GitHub for Cloud & DevOps Engineers course. Tutorials were fully rewritten to the academy standard on 2026-08-03.

Course structure¶

Who is this course for?¶

Cloud, DevOps, Platform, SRE, DevSecOps, and software engineers who need production Git and GitHub skills — not just git add / git commit, but branching policy, GitOps repos, Actions, IaC versioning, and incident recovery.

What was rewritten in the 2026-08-03 update?¶

All 17 core modules (19 tutorials) now follow .cursor/prompts/tutorial-format-linux.md: full Theory depth, topic-specific labs in ~/rebash-git/module-NN, Excalidraw diagrams, collapsible interview answers, and British English. Modules 1–2 and the first Module 3 tutorial were rewritten earlier in the same pass; do not overwrite those four files when syncing.

Do I need Linux first?¶

Yes — Linux Fundamentals and comfort with the shell. Labs use bash on macOS, Linux, or WSL.

Do I need a GitHub account?¶

Modules 1–8 work with local bare remotes only. GitHub-specific modules (9–11) include local checklist artefacts; optional gh CLI steps are marked when a account helps.

Git fundamentals¶

Merge vs rebase — which should I use?¶

Merge preserves branch topology and is safe on shared branches. Rebase linearises history on private feature branches before PR — never rebase commits others have pulled. See Merging and Merge Conflicts and Rebasing and Interactive Rebase.

reset vs revert on main?¶

Revert adds a forward commit that undoes a change — use on shared/pushed history. Reset moves branch pointers — only for local/unpushed fixes. See Undoing Changes.

Where should Terraform state live?¶

Never in Git. Use a remote backend; ignore *.tfstate locally. See .gitignore and .gitattributes and Git for IaC.

What is detached HEAD?¶

HEAD points at a commit instead of a branch — common after checking out a tag. Create a branch to keep work: git switch -c rescue. See Git Troubleshooting.

GitHub and collaboration¶

What is the difference between Git and GitHub?¶

Git is the distributed version control tool and object database. GitHub is a hosted forge (remote, PRs, Issues, Actions, security scanning). You can learn Git modules 1–8 without GitHub.

When are pull requests required?¶

Whenever branch protection enforces them — standard for main in production repos. PRs bundle diff, review, and CI status. See Pull Requests and Code Review.

What are CODEOWNERS?¶

A file mapping paths to teams that must review changes — e.g. *.tf @platform-team. See Pull Requests and Code Review.

GitHub Actions¶

Do I need Actions if I use Jenkins or GitLab CI?¶

Concepts transfer (triggers, jobs, secrets). This course teaches Actions because many GitHub-hosted repos standardise on it. Workflow YAML lives under .github/workflows/. See GitHub Actions for DevOps.

How do I avoid leaking secrets in Actions logs?¶

Use GitHub Secrets, OIDC to cloud roles, minimal permissions:, and never echo secrets. Enable secret scanning and push protection. See Signed Commits and Git Security.

Why does MkDocs break on GitHub Actions expressions in docs?¶

MkDocs macros interpret GitHub Actions expression markers (dollar-brace-brace). Wrap documentation examples in raw Jinja blocks so macros skip them; committed workflow files use normal Actions syntax. See the note at the bottom of GitHub Actions for DevOps.

GitOps¶

What is GitOps in one sentence?¶

Git is the source of truth for desired cluster state; a controller pulls and reconciles — humans avoid ad hoc kubectl apply in production. See GitOps Fundamentals.

apps/ vs clusters/ layout?¶

apps/ holds reusable bases; clusters/<env>/ holds environment overlays and version pins. See the lab in GitOps Fundamentals.

Argo CD or Flux?¶

Both implement Kubernetes GitOps; course principles apply to either. Links in tutorial References.

Labs and practice¶

Where do labs run?¶

Topic labs use ~/rebash-git/module-NN (e.g. module-03 for Git basics workflow). Each lab has 2–4 tasks, expected output, and asserts — not note-taking exercises.

How do labs relate to the capstone?¶

Module labs build skills; the capstone combines branch protection, Actions, semver, GitOps layout, and security scanning in one repository design.

Certification and careers¶

Which certifications align with this course?¶

GitHub Foundations, GitHub Actions, GitHub Administration, and Advanced Security topics map across modules 9–15. See course index.

Interview preparation?¶

Every tutorial includes 6–8 topic-specific questions with ??? success "Reveal answer" blocks. Consolidated banks live under Interview.