Ally Piechowski wrote a great article sharing five Git commands she uses when she’s exploring a new codebase. https://piechowski.io/post/git-commands-before-reading-code/
These five commands take a couple minutes to run. They won’t tell you everything. But you’ll know which code to read first, and what to look for when you get there. That’s the difference between spending your first day reading the codebase methodically and spending it wandering.
- Most changed files in git repository
- Git contributors by contribution count
- Files with most bug related changes
- Commit count by month
- Git frequency of hotfixes and emergencies
Her article goes beyond the snippets to explain why she runs them and what kinds of insights she’s gaining from them.