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Getting Started with GitHub

Welcome to GitHub! This guide will help you get started using GitHub, a platform for version control and collaboration. If you’re new to version control, GitHub is a great tool to manage and track changes to your code or files and work with others.

What You’ll Learn

  1. What GitHub is and why it’s useful.
  2. How to create a GitHub account.
  3. Basic Git commands to work with GitHub.
  4. Creating your first repository.
  5. Making and tracking changes.

1. What is GitHub?

GitHub is a platform built around Git, a version control system that helps you manage changes to your codebase or documents. GitHub allows multiple people to work on a project at the same time and keeps track of each change.

Why Use GitHub?

  • Version Tracking: Easily keep track of what changes were made and who made them.
  • Backup: Store your work safely in the cloud.
  • Collaboration: Work on projects with others efficiently.

2. Set Up Your GitHub Account

  1. Go to GitHub.com.
  2. Click Sign up and create a free account.
  3. Complete the sign-up steps, and you’re ready to go!

3. Basic Git Commands

Before using GitHub, you’ll need to install Git (if you haven’t yet):

Git Commands Cheat Sheet

Command Description
git init Initializes a new Git repository in your folder
git clone <url> Downloads a project from GitHub to your computer
git add <file> Adds a file to the list of changes to be saved
git commit -m "message" Saves your changes with a description of what you did
git push Sends your changes to GitHub
git pull Updates your local files with changes from GitHub

4. Cloning a repository

Cloning a repository means downloading a copy of an existing project from GitHub to your local computer. This allows you to work on the project locally and keep it synchronized with the version on GitHub.

Steps to Clone a Repository

  1. Find the repository you want to clone on GitHub.

  2. Click the Code button on the repository's main page.

  3. Copy the URL (you can choose HTTPS, SSH, or GitHub CLI, but HTTPS is usually easiest for beginners).

    • For HTTPS, the URL will look something like this: 
      https://github.com/username/repository-name.git

  4. Open a terminal (or Git Bash on Windows).

  5. Navigate to the directory where you want to save the repository:

    cd path/to/your/directory

  6. Use the git clone command, followed by the repository URL:

    git clone https://github.com/username/repository-name.git

  7. Git will download the repository to your local machine. You can now enter the repository’s directory:

    cd repository-name

5. Making Your First Commit

A commit is a snapshot of your changes.

  1. After creating or cloning your repository and entering the project directory, you can create/add/modify any files
  2. Tell git to begin tracking this file with git add <filename> or git add . to track the entire directory
  3. Commit your changes with a message 
    git commit -m "<message>"
  4. Push changes to GitHub 
    git push

6. Pulling changes

If you’re working with others, you’ll want to keep your files up-to-date with changes they make.

  1. Use git pull to fetch and merge changes from GitHub:
git pull

7. Basic Recap

  1. Add: Track files with git add <file>
  2. Commit: Commit files with git commit -m "<message>"
  3. Push: Send your changes to GitHub with git push