Pro Git
Pro Git by Scott Chacon and Ben Straubby Scott Chacon and Ben Straub
Shares rank 18 of 115 programming books by recommenders
Explains how Git works under the hood, from internals to everyday use and running a server. One critic finds it dull.
Explains how Git works under the hood, from internals to everyday use and running a server. One critic finds it dull.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Explains Git internals clearly
“All of it makes sense and is decently intuitive once you know how internals work.”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “A Coherent Vision for the Future of Version Control” “It provides a great mental model of how git works under the hood.”
Comment from 14 Jul 2026 in “The Git history command deserves more attention” “it makes understanding what's going on so much easier”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Ted Nyman – High Performance Git” Covers nearly everything you need
“if you want to sit down and really learn the nuts and bolts”
Comment from 26 Jul 2026 in “Git rebase -I is not that scary” “will teach you most of what you'll need in a lifetime”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “The Missing Semester of Your CS Education”
Other programming books people recommend
The four most recommended other programming books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crafting Interpretersby Robert Nystrom | 60 | 4 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Clean Codeby Robert C. Martin | 31 | 87 | 26% | 9 | — | — |
| The Pragmatic Programmerby Hunt and Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Pro Gitby Scott Chacon and Ben StraubThis page | 8 | 1 | 89% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
9 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I’ve read the “Pro Git” book, learned how devs and teams handle versioning”
“Looks like an incredibly dull way to waste hours of my finite life”
“if you want to sit down and really learn the nuts and bolts”
“It provides a great mental model of how git works under the hood.”
“it makes understanding what's going on so much easier”
“wow did my life with git change”
“There's instructions on running a Git server in the git book”
“All of it makes sense and is decently intuitive once you know how internals work.”
“will teach you most of what you'll need in a lifetime”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.