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VersionControl.md

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Overview

Version Control

Version control is a system that records changes to a file or set of files over time so that you can recall specific versions later and keep track of your changes.

Why use Git?

  • Keep a history of your work
  • Undo bad changes
  • Work on the same project with others
  • Backup your code to the Internet

What can I store in Git?

Short answer: Anything!

Longer answer: Anything that is in a plain-text format (e.g. source code, text files, HTML) can be tracked by Git very well. Binary files also can be tracked, but you shouldn't put certain binary files into Git. You shouldn't add generated executable files and object-code (.class, .pyc) because those files can be built using the source code. Images are generally okay to add, and GitHub will even show the differences in images!

Git and GitHub

What's the difference between Git and GitHub? Git is a distributed version-control system for tracking changes in source code repositories, while Github is a company that hosts Git repositories.

Installing Git

We've listed some brief instructions below, but if you run into issues, follow the instructions from the Git website to install Git.

Linux

Install Git using your package manager (e.g. sudo apt install git in the case of Ubuntu).

Mac OSX

Open a terminal and type git. If you get a prompt to install Xcode command line tools, let it install.

If you're impatient or want the latest version, you can install Git with this download (you may need to follow this guide).

Windows

You can download Git from here.

Making a GitHub Account

Go to GitHub and sign up for an account -- it's free!

terminal image

Note: If you're a student, you can apply for the pro version by following these instructions.

Getting Started with Git

Configure Git

Git needs to know what your name and email is in order to label your changes on repositories. Use the below commands to set these values.

Note: You don't need to use your real name or email for this, if you're concerned about privacy.

# Setting user name and email
git config --global user.name "Test User"'
git config --global user.email "testuser@gmail.com"'

Make a Project

  1. In your terminal, type mkdir myproject and cd myproject to create and enter a project directory.
  2. To make your current directory a Git repository, just type git init.
  3. Now that you have a directory with Git enabled, you can use the directory just like any other directory.
  4. Write or copy some files into the directory, and then type git status. This will show you the current status of what's available to add to Git.
  5. Under Untracked Files, you'll see the files that are in the directory, but not stored in Git.

Save Changes

  1. To start tracking a file, type git add myfile.txt.
  2. This hasn't saved the changes yet -- we need to ask Git to do that.
  3. When you're ready to save your changes, type git status to review what's going to be saved.
  4. If it all looks good, type git commit -m "Describe what you've changed in these quotes".
  5. To see what was saved, type git show. If you want to see a log of all of your previous commits, type git log.

Basic Git Commands

Command What it means
git init Initializes an empty git repository
git add . Adds all files in and below the current directory
git add <file1> Add a specific file
git add <folder> Add a folder
git remove <file> Remove a specific file
git commit <file> -m "message" Commits with a message
git log Display git commit history
git status Show files added to the index, files with changes, and untracked files
git pull Fetches from remote to merge with the current branch
git push Uploads local content to a remote repository
git clone <url> Clone a repository from a URL

Common git flow

git init # only needed once
git add <file>
git commit -m "commit message"
git remote add origin <repo_name> # only needed once
git push -u origin master

Pull Requests

Pull requests help users contribute to shared repositories. They're the main means by which people contribute to open source software.

If you're interested in learning more about how to make a pull request, check out this section.

Best Practices

Frequent Commits

Commits should be made as frequently as possible. Frequent commits allow you to easily revert changes, and will leave you with a descriptive log of what changes you've made since you started working.

Descriptive Commit Messages

Commits should act as snapshots of your code. By adding descriptive commits, you'll make it easier to identify what your changes did.