From Tech

Following is a list of changes in git that I should learn and get used to when I start using the new version.

Adding the PPA for the current version of git:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:git-core/ppa

New in 1.7.0

"git branch --set-upstream" can be used to update the (surprise!) upstream, i.e. where the branch is supposed to pull and merge from (or rebase onto).
"sparse checkout" feature allows only part of the work tree to be checked out.
- http://vmiklos.hu/blog/sparse-checkout-example-in-git-1-7
"git fetch --all" can now be used in place of "git remote update".
"git remote" learned set-url subcommand that updates (surprise!) url for an existing remote nickname.

New in 1.6.6

"git checkout frotz" when there is no local branch "frotz" but there is only one remote tracking branch "frotz" is taken as a request to start the named branch at the corresponding remote tracking branch.
"git fetch" learned --all and --multiple options, to run fetch from many repositories, and --prune option to remove remote tracking branches that went stale. These make "git remote update" and "git remote prune" less necessary (there is no plan to remove "remote update" nor "remote prune", though).
"git notes" command to annotate existing commits.

"git push $name" honors remote.$name.pushurl if present before using remote.$name.url. In other words, the URL used for fetching and pushing can be different.
"add" and "update" subcommands to "git submodule" learned --reference option to use local clone with references.