How to use GitHub#
Hands on workshop, online
In this 60 minute workshop, participants will be introduced to GitHub and how to access online repositories.
based on GitHub Docs Hello World exercise
Github (required)
Create a GitHub account (required)
You need to have a GitHub account for the purposes of this workshop. It is free to sign up via this link.
For SMU affiliates (students, faculty,staff): If you already have an account, you do not need to create another account. In the settings section of your personal account, you can add additional emails, such as your SMU email.
What are Git & GitHub ?#
Go through Introduction to Git & Github.
In this workshop we will:
Create and use a repository
Start and manage a new branch
Make changes to a file and push them to GitHub as commits
Open and merge a pull request
We will do this on the Github platform. We will not be installing git or using the command line in this workshop.
We will either fork a repo OR create a repo
Fork a repo#
extended explanation of Forking [link to explanation]
We wll be forking the Introduction to GitHub repo.
or start from scratch
Create a repo#
Create and use a repository#
Define: Repository, README, Markdown
In the upper-right corner of any page, select, then click New repository.
In the “Repository name” box, type hello-world.
In the “Description” box, type a short description.
Select whether your repository will be Public or Private.
Select Add a README file.
README written in Markdown
Click Create repository.
Now that we have a repo on our account (either created new or forked), we will make some changes
Create a branch#
Start and manage a new branch#
Define: main, branch
Branching lets you have different versions of a repository at one time.
Click the Code tab of your hello-world repository.
Above the file list, click the dropdown menu that says main.
Type a branch name, readme-edits, into the text box.
Click Create branch: readme-edits from main.
Now you have two branches, main and readme-edits. Right now, they look exactly the same. Next you’ll add changes to the new branch.
Commits#
Make changes to a file and push them to GitHub as commits#
Define: changes aka commits, commit messages.
VERSION CONTROL: Each commit has an associated commit message, which is a description explaining why a particular change was made
Under the readme-edits branch you created, click the README.md file.
To edit the file, click the pen icon.
In the editor, write a bit about yourself. Try using different Markdown elements.
Click Commit changes….
In the “Commit changes” box, write a commit message that describes your changes.
Click Commit changes.
These changes will be made only to the README file on your readme-edits branch, so now this branch contains content that’s different from main.
Open and merge a pull request#
Define: pull request
Pull requests show diffs, or differences, of the content from both branches.
Click the Pull requests tab of your hello-world repository.
Click New pull request
In the Example Comparisons box, select the branch you made, readme-edits, to compare with main (the original).
Look over your changes in the diffs on the Compare page, make sure they’re what you want to submit.
Click Create pull request.
Give your pull request a title and write a brief description of your changes. You can include emojis and drag and drop images and gifs.
Optionally, to the right of your title and description, click the next to Reviewers, Assignees, Labels, Projects, or Milestone to add any of these options to your pull request. You do not need to add any yet, but these options offer different ways to collaborate using pull requests. For more information, see “About pull requests.”
Click Create pull request.
Your collaborators can now review your edits and make suggestions.
Merging your pull request#
Define: merge, conflicts
At the bottom of the pull request, click Merge pull request to merge the changes into main.
Click Confirm merge. You will receive a message that the request was successfully merged and the request was closed.
Click Delete branch.
Now that your pull request is merged and your changes are on main, you can safely delete the readme-edits branch.
If you want to make more changes to your project, you can always create a new branch and repeat this process.