6 Git¶
Learning using git and GitHub are good for future work and our resume. Here are some simple hints to use git for this project.
6.1 Git and GitHub¶
The relationship between git and GitHub is simple: git is a software to help do version control; GitHub is a platform to store your code.
The software git is commonly seen in Linux or Mac OS Terminal. Although you might be able to use it in Windows prompt, Chao does not believe the prompt is very user friendly. And of course, since the names are similar, you may think git could only submit codes to GitHub, but it is not true. The thing is, you can use git to push your code to your local server. It is useful because we can use git to control versions, just like what we did in Google Drive before:
TermPaper_v1.pdf
TermPaper_v2.pdf
TermPaper_final.pdf
TermPaper_finalfinal.pdf
TermPaper_finalfinal_no_typo.pdf
Wonderful_TermPaper.pdf
On the other hand, GitHub supports your git very well, and in the mean time, it has so many other functions that we can use to build our project. We can learn the functionality with git together later.
6.2 Use Git on Windows¶
Install git on Windows is not too hard, just follow the instrutor install git @ windows.
Other methods are pretty good too.
Use Git Bash
Git Bash is more like a software that simulate terminal in linux. It is stright forward so please google Git Bash to download it.
Use GitHub Desktop
Like described above, the GitHub Desktop is working for GitHub specificly. You can use it if the GitHub is the only platform you are using. By installing that app, you do not need to know how to use terminal command. But where is the fun of coding anyway? You may better want to get involved into terminal commands sooner than later.
Use Editor Integrated Git
Many modern editors could do the git job for you by one single click, such as VS Code. But since it is integrated into this third-party software, you may encouter some bugs while you are using it. So why don’t you just go ahead and learn termial commands?
Also, installing VS Code does not mean you can get git automatically. That is said you still need to install git additionally.
6.3 Basic Git Command¶
When we use git, we want to “download”, “update” and “upload” the codes. The terms in git are:
Common Name |
Term |
Command |
Note |
|---|---|---|---|
project |
repository |
“repo” for short |
|
download |
clone |
git clone |
clone the repo on GitHub to your computer |
update |
pull |
git pull |
pull down the recent changes on GitHub |
upload_step1 |
add |
git add . |
add all local changes into index |
upload_step2 |
commit |
git commit -m “Your Message” |
store the index with message |
upload_step3 |
push |
git push |
finally upload your codes to GitHub |
whats going on |
status |
git status |
useful tool to debug |
versions |
branch |
git branch |
see which “version” you are in right now |
to be countinue |
The markdown table is shown as follow:
| Common Name | Term | Command | Note |
| -------------- | ---------- |:----------------------------:| ----------------------------------------- |
| project | repository | | "repo" for short |
| download | clone |`git clone` | clone the repo on GitHub to your computer |
| update | pull |`git pull` | pull down the recent changes on GitHub |
| upload_step1 | add |`git add .` | add all local changes into index |
| upload_step2 | commit |`git commit -m "Your Message"`| store the index with message |
| upload_step3 | push |`git push` | finally upload your codes to GitHub |
| whats going on | status |`git status` | useful tool to debug |
| versions | branch |`git branch` | see which "version" you are in right now |
| to be countinue| | | |
When you have a remote repo:
Step1: go to the repo page, click Clone or download, choose Use HTTPS, copy the URL.
Step2: open prompt or terminal, try cd to your working folder. cd means change directory. Let’s say you get a new created folder called “git-hub-repos” in “Document” folder. Firstly, cd Documentsgit-hub-repos. Remember, you can use “Tab” key at your keyboard to autocomplete some command, like when you only have one folder that started with “Docu” in your Windows account, you can simply type in cd Docu, and press “Tab” to complete the entire word.
When you see you are in the “git-hub-repos” folder, it means you are in right path. If not, please go see this to learn command of Windows prompt here: Windows prompt.
Step3: use command “git clone YOUR_URL_HERE”. Paste your URL to the right place, and press “Enter” key to let it finish the job.
Step4: cd REPOS_NAME to cd into your repo, then you can see and modify the files!
Step5: Once you finished modified files, you can use git to upload them. Firstly, use git config –global user.email YOUR_EMAIL, then git config –global user.name YOUR_NAME to set up your info.
Then use commands line by line: git add . to add all changes, git commit -m “YOUR MESSAGE” to leave a message, git push to push it to remote end. You may need to enter your GitHub account and password to finish uploading process.
Step6: remember to use git pull to check the updates by other people every time you want to modify some files. If two or more people are modifying files and uploaded them at the same time, the git may need to process it by merging your two different commit, which could be tricky for this moment.
6.4 Use SSH¶
If you find it really annoying that you need to type in your username and password every time you want to push codes to GitHub, maybe it is time for you to use SSH key. In short, SSH is a encrypted way to push and pull. The process would be:
Step1: generate a new local SSH key or find a exist key.
Step2: add this key to your GitHub account
Step3: job done!
The details could be found here: generate ssh key. You can find both Mac, Windows, and Linux instrution there.