Things Learn before using GitHub

7 min readMar 17, 2022

What is Git?

Git is a version controlling system that is free and open-source. Linus Torvalds invented it in 2005. This is a version control system that was originally created to collaborate with several Linux kernel engineers. Git is essentially a content management system. So Git may be used to store content — however it is most commonly used to store code because to its other features.

Multiple developers are usually working on a project at the same time in real life. As a result, they require a version control system such as Git to ensure that there are no code conflicts. Furthermore, the needs for such initiatives are always changing. As a result, a version control system enables developers to revert to a previous version of their code.

Furthermore, the needs for such initiatives are always changing. As a result, a version control system enables developers to revert to a previous version of their code. Git branching structure allows developers to work on a task independently

What is version controlling ?

Version control is a technique for tracking and storing changes in your files without erasing their history.

Version control systems begin with a basic version of the document and save just the modifications you make as you progress through the process. Consider it like a tape: if you rewind the tape and start at the beginning, you may play back each change until you reach the latest versions.

A version control system (VCS) is a program that helps us keep track of these changes and version our files (and merge — not covered in this course). It lets you choose which changes go into the next version, which is referred to as a commit, and it saves useful metadata about them. A repository is made up of the whole history of commits for a certain project as well as their metadata (such as our course material repositories). Repositories can be synced across many machines, allowing for collaboration among multiple persons.

One of the most obvious reasons to use version control is to avoid the situation depicted in the above comics, namely, to keep track of the whole history of your modifications in a systematic manner without the need for several versions of the same file. One of the most useful features of version control is the ability to “travel back in time,” i.e., if something goes wrong, you can restore the file to a previous version when everything was still working. You may also observe what has changed by comparing the differences across versions. Version control, in addition to the aforementioned features, allows several individuals to work on the same file or project at the same time while still keeping track of their own changes.

There are a number of different Version Control Systems (VCSs), but Git is one of the most used.

Why we need Git?

GitHub is used by nearly every open-source project to handle their projects. If your project is open source, GitHub is free to use, and it contains a wiki and issue tracker that make it simple to provide more detailed documentation and receive feedback.

If you wish to contribute, simply fork (create a clone of) a project, make your modifications, and then use GitHub’s web interface to send the project a pull request. This pull request is your means of informing the project that your modifications are ready for review.

What is GitHub?

In theory, GitHub is a service for hosting Git repositories on the web. As a result, it would not exist without Git, a version control system. When you use GitHub, Git is also running in the background all the time.

Git makes contributing to open source projects simple.

Collaborative network

GitHub, on the other hand, is a social network as well as a hosting facility for Git repositories. Invite other GitHub users to collaborate on the same project is very simple. GitHub is a popular platform for sharing code with the rest of the world or with just the collaborators on a given project.

Integration options

GitHub can integrate to popular cloud systems like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, as well as services like Code Climate to track your feedback and identify syntax in over 200 programming languages.

Changes in your code should be tracked between versions.

It’s difficult to maintain track of modifications when numerous people work on a project — who modified what, when, and where those files are stored — when multiple people collaborate on a project. This problem is solved by GitHub, which keeps track of all modifications made to the repository.

You can keep a version history of your code, much like you can with Microsoft Word or Google Drive, so earlier versions aren’t lost with each iteration. It’s simple to go back and contribute to the earlier version.

Documentations

GitHub repositories are frequently used to host web pages for various projects. Technical documentation, instructions, and examples of how to utilize the programs or software provided on the page are generally included on GitHub web pages. It is critical that you thoroughly document all of your codes and applications! GitHub is a great place to create and share such documentation.

Each repository (and sometimes its subfolders) contains a file named README.md, which serves as the default front page for the particular GitHub repository. Those files are written in Markdown, a basic language that can be used to produce attractive web pages with various formatting options, figures, and tables, among other things. Once you understand the core syntax of how different textual parts are written, Markdown is quite simple to use.

Vocabulary basics

Repository = A repository is a site where all of the files for a project are kept, generally abbreviated to “repo.” Each project will have its own repository, which will be hosted on a server and accessible via a unique URL (a link to GitHub page for example).

Commit = The changes made in the working copy are written or merged back into the repository when you commit. When you commit, you’re essentially taking a “snapshot” of your repository at that particular point in time, providing a checkpoint from which you can reassess or restore your project to any previous state. The terms ‘commit’ and ‘checkin’ can also be used as nouns to refer to the new revision made by committing.

Revision/version = Any change made to a document in any form is referred to as a revision or version (s).

Clone = Cloning is the process of generating a repository from the revisions of another repository. This is the same as pushing or retrieving data into a fresh (uninitialized) repository. When two repositories are kept synced and contain the same revisions, they are referred to as clones.

Pull/ Push = Revisions can be copied from one repository to another. The receiving repository initiates the pull, whereas the source initiates the push. Fetch is occasionally used interchangeably with the word “pull,” or to refer to a pull followed by an update.

Merge = A merge, also known as integration, is a process in which two sets of modifications are applied to a single file or a group of files.

Conclusion

A version control system (VCS) is a program that helps us keep track of these changes and version our files (and merge — not covered in this course). A repository is made up of the whole history of commits for a certain project as well as their metadata (such as our course material). Repositories can be synced across many machines, allowing for collaboration among multiple persons. GitHub is used by nearly every open-source project to handle their projects. If you wish to contribute, simply fork (create a clone of) a project, make your modifications, and then use GitHub’s web interface to send the project a pull request.

There are a number of different Version Control Systems (VCSs), but Git is one of the most used. GitHub is a popular platform for sharing code with the rest of the world or with just the collaborators on a given project. It can integrate to popular cloud systems like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud, as well as services like Code Climate. Technical documentation, instructions, and examples of how to utilize programs or software are generally included on GitHub web pages.