Hacktoberfest is starting tomorrow!! Are you ready??
In case you're quite new to git, I will try to explain in a simple way how to use the basic commands you absolutely need to contribute to Open Source.
Disclaimer: this tutorial is meant for beginners. I will oversimplify a little bit to make sure the concepts can be easily understood by someone who might have never used git or has little experience.
The commands are:
- clone -> Copy a remote repository in your computer.
- checkout -> Create a new branch.
-
add -> Put your local changes in the stage area.
- status -> Not mandatory, just to see the current state is all as expected.
- commit -> Take a snapshot of the stage area (the file you just added).
- push -> Upload your commit(s) to the remote repository.
Technically, you could do all these steps even without commands in terminal but with a GUI (Graphical User Interface) such as GitHub Desktop or Sourcetree, however since git is such a widespread and useful tool you're gonna use everyday, you must know at least the basics.
If you want to see how these commands can be used in a real case, you can watch this video I just uploaded on my YouTube Channel where i talk about Open Source and Web Development!
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Top comments (4)
Alternatively you can skip the git cli together and install GitHub desktop
desktop.github.com/
Yes, it's written in the article and I also mention GitHub Desktop in the video :)
However, I think we as developer should get used to work with the cli, at least for the basic commands.
Do you think for a beginner is better to use a GUI that makes it easy but doesn't teach them what is going on, or rather spend a little bit more time in learning the basic git commands that also comes with more knowledge and awereness of the tool?
I respectfully disagree.
For me what matters is what helps people to learn the concepts and what hinders it. The accidental complexity of the GIT CLI is in my opinion a major obstacle to learning.
It's not GUI vs terminal applications. If you like the terminal I recommend to use GitHub CLI and/or lazygit
Beginners should follow this advice IMHO
Learn git concepts, not commands
Nico Riedmann γ» Jun 2 '19 γ» 36 min read
Again this is my personal advice that doesn't universally apply. If you are an hardcode C programmer working in project similar to the Linux Kernel project (Bazaar style), then the git CLI is the best possible tool, because it was designed by and for them.
Thank you so much for sharing this article, I'll read it carefully :)