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BHG18 Montreal Collaborative git/GitHub Tutorial

Terminology

  • FORK: Make a personal, editable copy of a public GitHub repository. Refers to both the act of making and the copy itself.
  • CLONE: Download the contents of an online git repository onto your local computer.
  • BRANCH: Create a parallel copy/trajectory of a git repository. Refers to both the act of creating and the copy itself.
  • CHECKOUT: Switch to a different branch of your git repository.
  • STAGE: Prepare new/deleted/modified files to be committed to git history.
  • COMMIT: Store all staged changes in git history. Refers to both the act of storing and the changes themselves.
  • COMMIT MESSAGE: Information about the changes being stored in git history with a commit. Generally, this should start with a short summary of the changes made, followed by a blank line, and then a more in-depth description of the changes.
  • REMOTE: An online version of your local git repository.
  • PUSH: Send changes of a local git repository back to the remote copy of the repository (e.g., the copy on GitHub that was cloned).
  • PULL: Copy down changes from a remote a git repository to your local version.
  • PULL REQUEST (PR): Request a different fork or branch integrate the changes you've made in your git repository. Refers to both the act of requesting and the request itself.
  • MERGE: Join two branches of a git repository together.

GitHub collaborative workflow

  1. First, fork the project you want to work on so you can have your own copy of the original repository. Do this by going to the repository on GitHub and clicking fork in the top-right corner.

  2. Copy the fork to your computer by opening a terminal and typing: git clone https://github.com/yourusername/reponame. A new directory will be created titled yourreponame with the contents of the repository.

  3. Open Atom, click File --> Add a project folder, and select the folder yourreponame. A directory tree should show up on the lefthand side of the window with the contents of the repository.

  4. Create a new branch by clicking the tab in the lower, lefthand corner that reads 'Master'. Click 'New Branch', type the name of your new branch (something descriptive of the changes you intend to make, like "new-feature-X"), and press 'Enter' on your keyboard.

  5. Make some changes to the code or files in the repository!

  6. Type 'ctrl + shift + 9', which will open up the Git tab on the righthand side of the window (or click Packages --> GitHub --> Toggle Git Tab). This tab is what you'll use to stage and commit your changes to git history.

  7. Right click on the files in the "Unstaged changes" window that you've added/deleted/modified and click "Stage". They should move down to the "Staged changes" window, below.

  8. Type a commit message that describes the changes you made! It should ideally started with a short, one-line summary (about 60 characters) of the change you made, followed by a blank line, and then a more in-depth description of those changes.

  9. Click 'Commit to XXX', where XXX is the name of the branch you created, to commit the changes to history.

  10. Next, we need to push the changes we made back to the GitHub copy of the repository. Click the tab with a down and up arrow in the lower, lefthand corner of the Atom window. You may see a warning that says 'Note: No remote detected for branch XXX. Pushing will set up a remote tracking branch on remote repo "origin".' When we created a branch in step 4, that branch was only made in the local (cloned) copy of our repository; the GitHub copy of the repository (our remote copy) was not automically updated to reflect this new branch. Click "Push" to copy both the new branch and your changes up to your remote repository.

  11. Using a web browser, navigate to https://github.com/yourusername/reponame, the URL used in step 2.

  12. If you are logged in to your GitHub account, you should see a status update with a yellow background noting that changes were recently pushed to a new branch! Click "Compare and pull request" on the righthand side of that yellow status update.

  13. Select the fork / branch that you want to make a pull request onto. The fork could be the original repository that you forked in step 1, or your copy of it. Generally, if you are contributing to someone else's project, you will want this to be the original repository. The branch should usually be master, but if you are contributing to someone else's project ask them what they would like!

  14. Click 'Create pull request', enter some information about the pull request (describing what changes you made), and then click 'Create pull request', again. If you are contributing to someone else's project, they would generally either provide feedback on your changes and request edits or merge them!