Aisalkyn Aidarova

Posted on Sep 11

Weekend Lab — Git GitHub Pull Request CI

🎯 Goal

By the end of this lab you should understand this workflow:

Create Project
      ↓
Git
      ↓
Feature Branch
      ↓
Change Code
      ↓
Commit
      ↓
Push
      ↓
GitHub
      ↓
Pull Request
      ↓
Merge
      ↓
git pull
      ↓
GitHub Actions
      ↓
CI

Important: Do the lab yourself. Don't just copy commands. After every important command, ask yourself: What did this command just do?

PART 1 — Create Your Project

Open Terminal.

Create a new project:

cd ~

mkdir weekend-devops-lab

cd weekend-devops-lab

Check your location:

pwd

Create:

touch index.html

Open it:

nano index.html

Add:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>My DevOps Project</title>
</head>

<body>

<h1>Welcome to My DevOps Project</h1>

<p>Created by YOUR NAME</p>

<h2>Skills</h2>

<ul>
    <li>Linux</li>
    <li>Git</li>
    <li>GitHub</li>
    <li>AWS</li>
</ul>

</body>
</html>

Save.

Check:

ls

PART 2 — Initialize Git

Run:

git init

Then:

git status

Question

Why does Git show:

untracked

Answer this yourself before continuing.

Now:

git add index.html

Check again:

git status

Create your first commit:

git commit -m "Create initial website"

Check history:

git log --oneline

PART 3 — Create GitHub Repository

Go to GitHub.

Create a repository named:

weekend-devops-lab

For this exercise, create it empty.

Don't add README, .gitignore, or License when creating it.

Connect your local repository to GitHub using the repository URL GitHub gives you:

git remote add origin YOUR-GITHUB-REPOSITORY-URL

Check:

git remote -v

Rename your main branch if needed:

git branch -M main

Push:

git push -u origin main

Now refresh GitHub.

You should see:

index.html

PART 4 — Create a Feature Branch

Do NOT change main directly.

First:

git branch

Create:

git switch -c feature-about

Check:

git branch

You should see:

* feature-about
  main

Question

What does * mean?

PART 5 — Change Your Website

Open:

nano index.html

Add:

<h2>About Me</h2>

<p>I am learning DevOps Engineering.</p>

<p>This website is managed using Git and GitHub.</p>

Save.

Now do not immediately add it.

First:

git status

Then:

git diff

Look at what changed.

Then:

git add index.html

Check:

git status

Commit:

git commit -m "Add About section"

Check:

git log --oneline

PART 6 — Push Your Feature Branch

Push:

git push -u origin feature-about

Open GitHub.

You should now have:

main

feature-about

Question

Is the About section already inside main?

Think before continuing.

PART 7 — Pull Request

On GitHub create a:

Pull Request

Use:

base: main

compare: feature-about

Before merging, look at:

Files changed

Read your own changes.

Then merge the Pull Request.

Now:

feature-about
       ↓
Pull Request
       ↓
Review
       ↓
Merge
       ↓
main

PART 8 — Very Important Test

Go back to Terminal.

Switch to:

git switch main

Now look at your file:

cat index.html

STOP HERE.

Ask yourself:

I merged the PR on GitHub. Why might my local main still not have the newest change?

Because:

LOCAL != REMOTE

Now run:

git pull origin main

Then:

cat index.html

Check history:

git log --oneline

Your local main should now contain the merged change.

PART 9 — Push / Pull / Clone Challenge

Without looking at notes, answer:

I changed code locally and want to send it to GitHub.

Command = ?

Someone changed GitHub and I already have the repository.

Command = ?

I am a new employee and don't have the repository at all.

Command = ?

Answers:

git push

git pull

git clone

PART 10 — Create Your First CI

Now add GitHub Actions.

Make sure you're on main:

git switch main

Update it:

git pull origin main

Create the workflow directory:

mkdir -p .github/workflows

Create:

nano .github/workflows/ci.yml

Add:

name: Weekend CI

on:
  push:

jobs:

  test:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:

      - name: Say Hello
        run: echo "Hello from my CI pipeline"

      - name: Check Runner
        run: |
          whoami
          pwd

      - name: Finish
        run: echo "CI PASSED"

Save.

PART 11 — Before You Push

Run:

git status

Ask:

What new file does Git see?

Then:

git add .github/workflows/ci.yml

Commit:

git commit -m "Add first CI workflow"

Push:

git push origin main

PART 12 — Watch CI

Go to:

GitHub → Repository → Actions

Find:

Weekend CI

Open it.

Find the job:

test

Open the steps.

You should see:

Say Hello
✓

Check Runner
✓

Finish
✓

Congratulations — you triggered a CI workflow.

But don't stop at the green checkmark.

You must understand what happened:

git push
    ↓
GitHub received new commit
    ↓
push triggered workflow
    ↓
GitHub created a Runner
    ↓
Runner executed Job
    ↓
Job executed Steps
    ↓
Commands executed
    ↓
CI PASSED

PART 13 — Explain Your YAML

Be prepared to explain these on Monday:

name:

What does it mean?

on:
  push:

What does it mean?

jobs:

What is a Job?

runs-on: ubuntu-latest

What is a Runner?

steps:

What are Steps?

run:

What does run do?

PART 14 — Troubleshooting Challenge

I don't want them to only follow a happy path.

Change:

- name: Finish
  run: echo "CI PASSED"

temporarily to:

- name: Test Failure
  run: exit 1

Then:

git add .
git commit -m "Test CI failure"
git push

Go to GitHub Actions.

Your pipeline should fail.

Find:

❌

Open the failed job.

Find the failed step.

Then fix the workflow by changing it back to:

- name: Finish
  run: echo "CI PASSED"

Commit and push again:

git add .
git commit -m "Fix CI workflow"
git push

Your goal:

❌ FAILED
     ↓
Investigate
     ↓
Fix
     ↓
Commit
     ↓
Push
     ↓
✓ PASSED

This is much closer to what DevOps engineers actually do.

PART 15 — Bonus: Deploy It to EC2

Students who finish early should continue.

On Ubuntu EC2:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git nginx -y

Then:

git clone YOUR-GITHUB-REPOSITORY-URL

Enter repository:

cd weekend-devops-lab

Deploy:

sudo cp index.html /var/www/html/index.html

Check:

sudo systemctl status nginx

Test locally:

curl localhost

Then open:

http://YOUR-EC2-PUBLIC-IP

Now your complete architecture is:

Developer
   ↓
Git
   ↓
GitHub
   ↓
CI
   ↓
Repository
   ↓
EC2
   ↓
Nginx
   ↓
Port 80
   ↓
Browser

What Students Must Submit

Each student should send you one GitHub repository link plus screenshots showing:

Repository with index.html
Feature branch
Pull Request
Merged PR
.github/workflows/ci.yml
Successful GitHub Actions run ✓
Failed CI run ❌ and the later fixed successful run ✓
Bonus: website running from EC2/Nginx

And prepare a 2–3 minute presentation for Monday explaining:

What is Git?
What is GitHub?
What is a Branch?
What is a Pull Request?
What does git push do?
What does git pull do?
What is CI?
What triggered your workflow?
What is a Runner?
What is a Job?
What is a Step?
Why did your CI fail?
How did you fix it?

DEV Community

Weekend Lab — Git GitHub Pull Request CI

🎯 Goal

PART 1 — Create Your Project

PART 2 — Initialize Git

Question

PART 3 — Create GitHub Repository

PART 4 — Create a Feature Branch

Question

PART 5 — Change Your Website

PART 6 — Push Your Feature Branch

Question

PART 7 — Pull Request

PART 8 — Very Important Test

STOP HERE.

PART 9 — Push / Pull / Clone Challenge

PART 10 — Create Your First CI

PART 11 — Before You Push

PART 12 — Watch CI

PART 13 — Explain Your YAML

PART 14 — Troubleshooting Challenge

PART 15 — Bonus: Deploy It to EC2

What Students Must Submit

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