How to set up git with joomla?

Question

git

Hello. Actually there are more than one questions.
I am developing websites, I do it alone. I have several Joomla sites. Basically, the process of making some changes goes like this:
1) if the changes are not critical (editing a couple of css properties), I do it directly on the server where the site hangs.
2) if the changes are critical and need to be shamanized, I deploy a local copy of the site on my working computer, make changes and either deploy the corrected site to replace the current one, or make changes on the server that I just made locally.
It is immediately clear that I am doing a lot of extra work. Git seems to be suitable for my needs, but those who worked with joomla know that the number of files for one site is simply huge, and as I understand it, in order to fully synchronize the site, I need to configure git to track all of them. I somehow tried to do this, but after some one editing in 1 css file and trying to commit it, I saw a huge footcloth output of all unchanged files and a lot of time was spent on it.
How to proceed in such a case? Highlight specific directories where major changes occur, such as the current template directory and track only that?
This is a question about how joomla is friends with git in general.
The second question is how to set up interaction? I have a vds server with centOS, on which sites hang out. Is it possible to deploy the main repository there, from which to pull on local machines? Or do you need to look for another, independent server?

Answer 1

I'm doing the same - using diffmerge locally.
1. Download the site + database dump to your local hosting as files and save a copy in the local "before" folder.
2. Import the database.
3. Make edits on the site (local hosting).
4. Do an export of the database and merge all the files into the "after" folder.
5. Run diffmerge (or similar tool) and get the difference.

Answer 2

Put gitignor on content folders. But it's all a hassle for such small projects. In general, from the "unpopular" solutions - Dreamweaver can synchronize the local version with the remote one by command, or by the save button, automatically. I think that any normal IDE can do this, but to be honest, I didn’t look at them, unnecessarily.