Git is an open source, distributed version control system founded in command line interaction. This guide provides the day-to-day setup and commands to use Git locally and connect repositories to GitHub for a complete collaboration workflow.
With a language all its own, this quick guide to common terms of GitHub and Git will have you collaborating in no time.
A repository is the most basic element of Git and GitHub. Imagine it as a project's folder. A repository contains all of the project files (including documentation), and stores each file's revision history.
An individual change to a file (or set of files). 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 the changes made.
A parallel version of repository. It is contained within the repository, but does not affect the main branch, allowing you to work freely without disrupting the "live" version.
The connection of a local repository with one on GitHub. It permits revision history to be synchronized by publishing local commits and downloading any new changes from GitHub.
A feature on GitHub which provides conversation, line-by-line code review, change history analysis, and summaries of modified files.
The first thing to setup when using Git is two important fields about the user. This allows appropriate credit and traceability for project contributions.
git config --global user.name "Mona Lisa Octocat"
git config --global user.email "mona@github.com"
Versioning files begins by creating a repository on your GitHub account. File authoring and editing can be performed through the web interface or by acquiring the repository locally from the command line.
git clone [url] [project-name]
cd [project-name]
Repository contributions are commonly made through branches and commits focused on small pieces of work.
git branch [name]
git switch [name]
git add [file]
git commit -m [commit message]
When the feature work reaches completion, the branch can be merged locally or pushed to GitHub for code review.
git switch main
git merge [branch]
git push -u origin [branch]
As commits can be efficiently made, the state of any new, modified, or missing files can be verified and quickly validated.
git status
git diff [modified-file]
Commits can be made against any branch and in any order. Commonly, this is performed against the main branch as means of feature or bug-fix integration.
git switch main
git merge feature-enhancement
git branch -d feature-enhancement
[PLACEHOLDER - Recursive Merge Diagram]
The last step deletes the branch. Merges result in all commit history becoming traversible, and eliminating the need for the branch label to remain.
Sharing commit history requires only a destination repository, one on GitHub, and a single setup step.
git remote add origin [repo-url]
git remote -v
[PLACEHOLDER - Local-Upstream Diagram]
With a remote setup, and the traditional name of "origin" aliased to the URL, publishing local commits is simple.
git push origin [branch-name]
Retrieving changes from a shared repository and automatically merging in any new commits locally is performed in a multi-step operation run by one command.
git switch [target-branch]
git pull origin [upstream-branch]