Github Basics

logo-github

What is Github ?

Github is a hosting platform for git repositories. You can put your own git repos on Github and access them from anywhere and share them with people around the world . 

Beyound hosting repos, Github also provides additional collaboration features that are not native to git (but are super useful). Basically, 
Github helps people share and collaborate on repos

GIT VS GITHUB

• Git : Git's version control software that run locally on your machine. You don't need to register for an account. You don't need the internet to use it . You can use Git without ever touching github

• Github : Github is a service that host Git repositories in the cloud and makes it easier to collaborate with other people. You do need to sign up account to use Github.It's an onlien place to share work that is done using Git .

GITHUB is not your only option ...

There are tons of competing tools that provide similar hosting and collaboration features, including Gitlab , Gitbucket , and Gerrit .

Github - It's very popular !

Founded in 2008 ,Github is now `the world's largest host of source code` . In early 2020, Github reported having over 40 milion users and over 190 million repositories on the platform .

Github's free

Github offers its basic servies for free! While Github does paid team and enterprise tier, the the basic Free tier allows for unlimited public and private repos , unlimited collaboratos ,and more 

Why you should use Github ?

Collaboration

If you ever plan on working on a project with ai least on ther person,Github will make your life easier! Whether your 're building a hobby project with your friend or you-re collabborating with the entire world , Github is essential.

Open source projects

Todays Github is the home of open source projects on the internet . Projects ranging from React to Swift are hosted on Github . 

If you plan on contributing to open source projects, you'll need to get comfortable working with Github

Exposure

Your Github profile showcase your own projects and contributions to other's projects.

It can act as a sort of resume that many employers will consult in the hiring process . Additonally, you can gain some clout on the platform for creating or contributing to popular project

Stay Up to Date

Being active on Github laf the best way to stay up to date with the projects and tools you rely on, Lean about upcomming changes and the decisions/debate behind them 

Cloning

So far, we've created our own git Repositories from sratch , but often we want to get a local copy of an existing repository instead .

To do this , we can clone a remote repository hosted on Githunn or similar website . All we need is a URL that we cann tell Git to clone for use .

git clone

To clone a repo , simply run git clone <url> .

Git will retrieve all the files asssociated with the repository and will copy them to your local machine.

In addition , Git initalize a new repository on your machine, giving you access to the git history of the cloned project .

Permissions

Anyone can clone a repository from Github, provided the repository is public. You do not need to be an owner or collaborator to clone repo locally to machine .You just need the URL from Github . 

Pushing up your own changes to the Github repo...that is another story entriely ! You need permission to do that ! 

We are not limmited to github repos

`git clone` is standard git command.It is not tied specifically to github . WE can use it to clone repositories that are hosted anywhere ! it just happens that most of the hosted repo are on github these days

SSH Key

You need to be authenticated on github to do certian operations, like pushing up code form your machine. Your terminal will prompt you every single time for your github emaul and password ,unless..

You generate and configure an SSH key , Once configured, you can connect to githun without having to suply your username/password 

How do i get my code on github ?

options 1 :

If you already have an existing repo locally that you want to get on Github...

• Create a new repo on github

• connect your local repo (Add a remote)

• push up your changes to github

options 2 :

Start from scratch

If you haven't begun work on your local repo, you can ...

• create a branch new repo on github

• clone it down to your machine

• do some work locally

• push up your changes to github

Pushing code

To get your own changes and git history up on github,we need to push them up. the typical workflow looke something like this :

• make some chanes locally

• add and commit those changes

• repeat

• push new commits to github

Remote

Before we can push anything up to github, we need to tell git about our remote repository on github. We need to setup a 'destination' to push up to.

In Git,We refer to these 'destination' as remotes Each remote is simply a url where a hosted repost lives

Viewing remotes

To view any existing remotes for your repository, we can reun git remote or gi remote -v (verbose,for more info)

This just displays the a list remote . If you haven't added any remotes yet , you won't see anything !

Adding a new remite

A remote is really two things : a URL and label . to add a new remote,we need to provide both to git

Example adding a new remote

git remote add origin https://github.com/aaaa/aoma.git

anytime i use the name "origin".I'm referring to this particular github repo url

what is Origin ?

origin is a conventional git remote name,but it is not at all special. It's just a name for a URL.

When we clone a Github repo, the default remote name setup for us is called origin . You can change it . Most people leave it .

Rename origin

They are bit commonly used,but there are commands to rename add delete remotes if needed ,

git remote rename <old> <new>

git remote remove <name>

Pushing

git push <label-remote> <branch-name>

Now that we have a remote set up, let's push some work up to Github! To do this , we need to use the git push command .

We need to specify the remote we want to push to and the secific local branch we want to push to that remote

Pushing in detail

While we often want to push a local branch up to a remote branch of the same name , we don't have to ~

git push origin <lable-remote> <local-branch>:<remote-branch>

the -u option :

The -u option allows us to set the upstream sets the upstream of the local master branhc so that it tracks the master branch on the origin repo

this mean

git push <=> gut push origin master 

overview environment github