Learning about version control system is an important part of your developer journey. As I started to code, one of the first things that I learnt was about Git and GitHub. Straight from the horse’s mouth, “Git is a free and open-source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency.” It was created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 and has become the standard for version control in software development due to its efficiency and flexibility.
On the other hand, GitHub is a web-based hosting service for Git repositories. It provides a platform where developers can store their Git repositories in the cloud, making it easier to collaborate with others. GitHub adds features on top of Git, such as issue tracking, pull requests, code review, and project management tools. Open-source projects and teams widely use it for managing and sharing code.
Here are some of the basic commands of git that would help you get started using it:
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git init
- Initializes a new Git repository in the current directory.
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git clone [repository_url]
- Clones a remote repository from GitHub or another Git hosting service to your local machine.
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git add [file(s)]
- Adds file(s) to the staging area to prepare them for a commit.
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git commit -m “commit message”
- Commits the staged changes to the repository with a descriptive message.
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git status
- Shows the current state of the working directory and staging area.
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git pull
- Fetches changes from the remote repository and merges them into the current branch.
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git push
- Pushes your commits to the remote repository.
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git branch
- Lists all local branches in the repository.
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git checkout [branch_name]
- Switches to the specified branch.
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git merge [branch_name]
- Merges the specified branch into the current branch.
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git remote -v
- Lists the remote repositories associated with the local repository.
Now let’s learn about some of the GitHub Commands:
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git remote add origin [repository_url]
- Sets up a remote repository on GitHub as the origin for your local repository.
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git push -u origin [branch_name]
- Pushes the specified branch to GitHub and sets it as the upstream branch.
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git pull origin [branch_name]
- Fetches changes from GitHub and merges them into the current branch.
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git clone [repository_url]
- Clones a repository from GitHub to your local machine.
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git fork
- Creates a copy of a repository on GitHub under your GitHub account.
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git pull-request
- Opens a pull request on GitHub for merging changes from a branch.
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git fetch –all
- Fetches all branches from the remote repository to your local machine.
These commands cover the basic operations you'll perform when using Git and GitHub for version control and collaboration in software development.