Laboratory Exercise: Using Git

In this course, we will use Github as our version control and repository system. The way in which we will use git and github are explained here

  1. If you have not already done so, read the general introduction to git found here, and the watch the video demonstration.
  2. If you have not already done so, download Github for Windows or Github for Mac. We will refer to either of these clients as GHF* (If you are using a Linux machine, you will have to use the command-line interface or git-gui, which should have been included in your distro.)
  3. If you have not already done so, create an account for yourself on Github. (You can do that directly from GHF* if you want). If you do not have any repositories in your account, click on the little book in the upper-right-hand corner to create a public repository.
  4. Open GHF*, and click "LOG IN" to log in to your github account. The first time you do this, it will ask for your github login and password. It will also give you a checkbox icon that says "always use REBASE". Leave this box checked.

    You should see your repository in the repository list. Select it, and mouse over to the right side of the entry. A little down-arrow should appear. Select it to clone this repository on your local machine. (Don't worry, it gets simpler after this.)

  5. Then click on the right arrow to open the repository. Click on the gear icon "tools" to open an explorer window pointing at the repository.
  6. Add a text file to the repository, using the tool of your choice.
  7. Now go back to GHF*. You should see the blue message that says "uncommitted changes". Click "SHOW" to display them. You can see the diffs.
  8. In the yellow box, write a commit message, and hit "COMMIT".
  9. Now you should see a display for "unsynced commits".
  10. THIS NEXT PART IS VERY IMPORTANT! You see the panel that says "unsynced commits"? This means that you have made changes to the repository that have not been uploaded to the server. Upload your changes to the server by clicking on the icon that says "sync" to upload them. It will throb for a little while, and then switch to a checkmark that says "in sync".
  11. To see that your changes have been uploaded, click on "tools" again. This time, select "view on github".
  12. A browser window should pop open with your repository. You should see your new file there.
  13. Now let's edit the file in the brower. Click on the file to view it, and then click "edit". A text window should open. Edit the file a little. Scroll down, change the commit message if you like, and hit "commit changes."
  14. Now let's download those changes into your local copy. In GHF*, if you are still looking at your repository, hit F5 to refresh. (Otherwise just open your repository again, and it will refresh). Now the "in sync" checkmark will be replaced by "refreshing..." . Eventually the "sync" icon will appear. (If there were no changes on the server, it will go back to the "in sync" checkmark.) Click the sync icon to download the changes. You will get a screen that says "no local changes". To see the changes that were made, click on the first panel in the "history" display.

Last modified: Tue Aug 27 22:28:59 -0400 2013