Git Collaboration 1

Learning Objectives

• Use git from the command line to stage, commit and push local changes to a remote GitHub repository
• Explain the purpose of the commands git status and git log.
• Collaborate with a partner using git and GitHub

Introduction

Git is a tool we use to manage changes in our code projects.

Exercise 1

Decide who's Bob and who's Alice.

Alice, on your computer:

• Create a new directory called 'introductions'
• Initialise the directory as a new git repository

Try out git status and see what it says — it's usually useful information. If it says 'Not a git repository' then something is wrong.

Exercise 2

Alice, on your computer:

• Create a new file called index.html in the directory called 'introductions'

• Ask your pair partner their name

• Add the following to it, replacing NAME with their name:

  <h1>Hello NAME!</h1>

• Stage and commit this change.

Try out git log. You should see your commit there.

Exercise 3

Alice, on your computer:

• Create a new GitHub repository called 'introductions'
• Set up your local git repository to point towards the GitHub repository
• Push your local changes to the Github repository
• Add your partner as a collaborator on the Github repository

Check out the repository page on Github. You should see your file there.

Exercise 4

Bob, on your computer:

• Clone (don't fork) your pair partner's 'introductions' repository
• Open the index.html file in your browser/Live Server to check it works
• Add a new html element to 'index.html' saying hello back
• Stage, commit and push your changes

Check back on that repository page — do you see your new changes on Github?

Exercise 5

Bob, on your computer:

• Open the repository on Github and find the list of commits
• You should see two commits with your photos
• You should be able to click the photos and see your Github profile

Here is an example of how it should be:

Exercise 6

Both, on your respective computers:

• Set up your global git config to use:
  • Your real name
  • The email address you use with GitHub

Here is how you check it is set up correctly:

$ git config --global --get-regexp "user"
user.name edward
user.email edward@boolean.co.uk

Exercise 7

Imagine it is a fresh new day, and you have a new person to pair with: Ada Lovelace.

We want to pick up from where we left off, but without interfering with Alice's repository. To do this, we create a new repository with the same code.

Either one of you, on your computer:

• Create a new repository on Github called 'introductions-2'
• Change your local repository remote to point to your new 'introductions-2' repository
• Write a new introduction to Ada
• Stage, commit and push your changes

Ada's introduction should now be on Github!

Exercise 8

Using git involves learning a lot of strange commands with weird names.

How can we learn about commands like this? List some techniques:

Getting good at finding out information like this will help you become a better software engineer. Each additional technique you learn might save you days or weeks of time in the long run.