GitHub is the developer company. We make it easier for developers to be developers: to work together, to solve challenging problems, to create the world’s most important technologies. We foster a collaborative community that can come together—as individuals and in teams—to create the future of software and make a difference in the world. GitHub Facts
GitHub is the most important tool you can use as a developer. We will explore why we need to use GitHub and the importance of Version Control. We will use some of GitHub's most important features including cloning, committing, and pushing. At the end of this unit you will be able to use GitHub as a version control system, write code using markdown, and have 5 repositories on your GitHub account.
- Git: Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Source
- Branch: A branch is a parallel version of a repository. It is contained within the repository, but does not affect the primary or master branch allowing you to work freely without disrupting the "live" version. When you've made the changes you want to make, you can merge your branch back into the master branch to publish your changes. Source
- Clone: A clone is a copy of a repository that lives on your computer instead of on a website's server somewhere, or the act of making that copy. With your clone you can edit the files in your preferred editor and use Git to keep track of your changes without having to be online. It is, however, connected to the remote version so that changes can be synced between the two. You can push your local changes to the remote to keep them synced when you're online. Source
- Commit: A commit, or "revision", is an individual change to a file (or set of files). It's like when you save a file, except with Git, every time you save it creates a unique ID (a.k.a. the "SHA" or "hash") that allows you to keep record of what changes were made when and by who. Commits usually contain a commit message which is a brief description of what changes were made. Source
- Diff: A diff is the difference in changes between two commits, or saved changes. The diff will visually describe what was added or removed from a file since its last commit. Source
- Fork: A fork is a personal copy of another user's repository that lives on your account. Forks allow you to freely make changes to a project without affecting the original. Forks remain attached to the original, allowing you to submit a pull request to the original's author to update with your changes. You can also keep your fork up to date by pulling in updates from the original. Source
- Markdown: Markdown is a simple semantic file format, not too dissimilar from .doc, .rtf and .txt. Markdown makes it easy for even those without a web-publishing background to write prose (including with links, lists, bullets, etc.) and have it displayed like a website. Source
- Merge: Merging takes the changes from one branch (in the same repository or from a fork), and applies them into another. This often happens as a pull request (which can be thought of as a request to merge), or via the command line. A merge can be done automatically via a pull request via the GitHub web interface if there are no conflicting changes, or can always be done via the command line. Source
- Open Source: Open source software is software that can be freely used, modified, and shared (in both modified and unmodified form) by anyone. Today the concept of "open source" is often extended beyond software, to represent a philosophy of collaboration in which working materials are made available online for anyone to fork, modify, discuss, and contribute to. Source
- Pull: Pull refers to when you are fetching in changes and merging them. For instance, if someone has edited the remote file you're both working on, you'll want to pull in those changes to your local copy so that it's up to date. Source
- Push: Pushing refers to sending your committed changes to a remote repository, such as a repository hosted on GitHub. For instance, if you change something locally, you'd want to then push those changes so that others may access them. Source
- Repository: A repository is the most basic element of GitHub. They're easiest to imagine as a project's folder. A repository contains all of the project files (including documentation), and stores each file's revision history. Repositories can have multiple collaborators and can be either public or private. Source
- README.md: You can add a README file to your repository to tell other people why your project is useful, what they can do with your project, and how they can use it. Source
- License: Public repositories on GitHub are often used to share open source software. For your repository to truly be open source, you'll need to license it so that others are free to use, change, and distribute the software. Source
- Version Control: A system that records changes to a file or set of files over time so that you can recall specific versions later. Source
- Join GitHub
- Use an appropriate username somehow related to your name.
- Use a non-school email address.
- Use your school password. (I will not be able to recover your password)
- Follow Me
- Complete Creating your First Repository
- Complete Hello World
- Complete Recipe Markdown
- Complete About Me
- Complete Free For All