GitHub for Beginners
Introduction
GitHub is a source control platform that almost every developer utilizes when creating projects that involve code and committing changes. It is a safe place where you can store your project files, revert to old versions of your project at any time if you require to and you can fork into new projects. In this blog, I will guide you how to get set up with GitHub, how to create your first repository, how to connect your repository to the local files on your computer and how to commit your first file changes to GitHub.
Accessing GitHub
To get started with GitHub, create an account if you don’t already have an account and get signed into GitHub. Now there are different ways to use GitHub. Initially let’s consider the online version of GitHub by accessing the browser(https://github.com/).
Creating a Repository
Once we get logged into GitHub, all the created repositories are listed on the left. To create a new repository, click on the button called New. Name that repository as you prefer. The repository is named as GitHubTest. Give it a description if you want and you can choose whether you want the repository to be public or private. It’s always a good idea to at least have one file with any repository so you can choose to initialize the repository with the readme file. When you’re done click create repository. Now we’ve created a repository.
Viewing Repository List
Once you create repositories in GitHub, those will be listed at any time when you go to the home page. By clicking on a repository, you can view all the information about a repository including all the files, and last time a commit was made to the repository. You can track issues, requests, and almost all aspects of your project in GitHub. You can also view insights when files are being modified and how much work is been done. You have access to change some project settings. If you want to change the settings, click on the settings section then you’ll notice that you can add collaborators to a project, decide how branches are going to work, customize notifications and many more.
Installing GitHub desktop
Now, let’s discuss how to connect your local files to a GitHub repository.
Initially it is required to download the desktop version of GitHub from desktop.github.com. You can download the local version of GitHub and you could download the version depending on what operating system you’re using. After you have that downloaded and installed, sign in with your GitHub account if it is required to proceed.
Cloning a Repository locally
Let’s go back to the repository on GitHub online version. On the main repository page, click on the green button called “Code” that gives the opportunity to clone or download that repository and then select the option to open with GitHub desktop. It asks whether it is required to open the GitHub desktop app, click Ok.
When we try to clone that repository to the desktop app, we have a few different options. First, address to this repository is automatically added so don’t change it. Local path is the option which allows us to choose where on our computer we would like this repository to be located, so you can either leave it as the default location or if you already have some project files or a folder for this project you can browse and you can choose the correct folder on your computer.
Then click on Clone. So now we’ve just cloned the repository that we created on GitHub, and we have connected it to the GitHub desktop application. Now if we make any changes to the files in this repository, we will then be able to commit those to the master.
Committing new changes
Simple steps to commit changes:
- Click the “README.md” file
- Click the icon with pencil shape in the upper right corner of the file view to edit
- Write your details in the editor
- Write a commit message that describes the changes
- Click commit changes button
That’s it for this article, thank you so much for reading. Feel free to express your thoughts in the comment section. Explore more about this topic.
