GitHub is basically a website that offers software programmers a method whereby they can save their files at certain times, so that if any mistakes are made, they can go back to a previous version of the program and change it. It allows multiple users to work on and update a project, so people can work separately on the same project, which is kind of cool.
So whenever you make a change to a project, you have to 'commit' it through the Git Bash program.
I am going to do a step-by-step guide to setting up a basic Git repository (a Git repository is a place where all the commits will be stored). Firstly, open Git Bash and type the following:
$ mkdir example
$ cd example
This creates a directory on your computer. To initialize this as a Git repository, type:
$ git init
We can then add files into the directory using the touch command (a readme file is generally what you will put in first):
$ touch README.md
$ touch sample1.txt sample2.txt
This creates two blank text files in the repo (sample1 and sample2). We can commit now:
$ git add --all
$ git commit -m "Commit #1"
We have created sample1 and sample2, now if we want to create more samples, this brings in the 'branch' factor. To create a new branch (called 'lumia' type:
$ git checkout -b lumia
Then, to add another sample file:
$ touch sample3.txt
$ touch sample4.md
Type in:
$ git status -sb
This will return the two newly created files (sample3.txt and sample4.md) which are located in the branch we are using. You don't have to commit both of the files, you could choose to only commit one as follows:
$ git add sample3.txt
Now just the sample3.txt has been added and sample4.md has not been added. If there were a few files that you wanted to add, and they all ended in the same format, ie. .txt, then you could type in:
$ git add *.txt
That add all of the .txt files that you created. Now, if you check the status again, only the remaining file sample4.md will be displayed as 'untracked'. So now we can commit the files we are happy with:
$ git commit -m "Add sample text file"
(Apparently when you leave a comment, it is best to use the present tense (-_-). So that is our three sample.txt files committed! We can create a new branch and put the sample4.md file into it. (MD by the way, is 'markdown' language, it is basically another form of text file, primarily used in programming, because it is easy to read and write to):
$ git checkout -b branchtwo
Git will tell us that it switched to a new branch 'branchtwo' (or whatever you want to name it). To add our sample4.md file from the other branch, simply type the following and then check the status to make sure the file was moved to the new branch, and then finally commit:
$ git add sample4.md
$ git status -sb
$ git commit -m "Add sample markdown file"
To list all branches, type:
$ git branch
To switch between branches, use the checkout command again, and then use the list command to list all the files in that branch:
$ git checkout lumia
$ ls -1
You may have noticed that when you listed the branches, there was a 'master' branch in the list. This is created by default, and I guess it could be called the tree. To merge the 'master' branch and the 'lumia' branch, we can type the following:
$ git checkout master
$ git merge lumia
Now they are merged and the lumia branch can be deleted as follows, and then confirmed by listing the branches:
$ git branch -d lumia
$ git branch
So now we have only the master branch, and the 'branchtwo' branch. Each time you use the 'checkout' command to change branch, if you keep the folder of the directory open on screen, you will see the files change in real time! That is all for Part 1, I will post the follow up in the coming days...
