Git and GitHub Tutorial

Introduction

• Tutorial on Git and GitHub usage
• Covers basic to intermediate Git concepts: repositories, GitHub, branching, merging, forking
• Presented by Gwen from Faraday Academy

What is Git?

• Free and open-source version control system
• Tracks code changes overtime
• Widely used by developers

Version Control

• Helps programmers track code changes
• Allows reverting to previous versions
• Useful for bug tracking and history review

Key Terminology

• Directory: Folder on your computer
• Terminal/Command Line: Text-based interface for running commands
• CLI: Command Line Interface
• CD (Change Directory): Command to navigate between folders
• Code Editor: Application to write code (e.g., Visual Studio Code)
• Repository: Project or code storage area
• GitHub: Online platform to host Git repositories

Basic Git Commands

• Clone: Copy repository from GitHub to local machine
• Add: Stage changes for commit
• Commit: Save changes to local repository
• Push: Upload local changes to remote repository
• Pull: Download changes from remote repository

Setting Up Git

• Check if Git is installed by running git --version
• Install Git if necessary
• SSH keys setup for GitHub authentication

Creating and Managing Repositories

• Create new repositories on GitHub
• Initialize local repositories with git init
• Connect local repos to GitHub with git remote add origin <URL>

Local Workflow

1. Write code in a code editor
2. Use git add to stage changes
3. Use git commit to save changes
4. Use git push to upload changes to GitHub

Git Branching

• Branch: Parallel version of a repository
• Master branch: Default branch
• Create a new branch with git checkout -b <branch-name>
• Switch between branches with git checkout <branch-name>

Merging and Pull Requests

• Merge: Combine changes from different branches
• Pull Request (PR): Request to merge changes into another branch
• Review and resolve comments on PRs

Handling Merge Conflicts

• Occur when changes are conflicting
• Resolve conflicts manually in the code editor

Undoing Changes

• Unstage changes with git reset <file>
• Undo commits with git reset HEAD~1
• Hard reset with git reset --hard <commit-hash> to discard changes

Forking Repositories

• Create a copy of a repository on GitHub
• Useful for contributing to others’ projects
• Make changes and submit pull requests back to original repo

Conclusion

• Encouragement to practice using Git
• Invitation to subscribe to Faraday Academy
• Feedback request for the tutorial