README.md

Git Flow and Commands

Jump to what you need

• Git Flow and Commands
  • Jump to what you need
  • Basic git commands
    • Get & Create Project
    • Save Your Work
    • Share Your Work
    • Other Useful Commands
  • How to download a project
  • Basic setup for pairing
    • Creating a Repo
    • PAT Setup
    • Inviting Teammate
    • Cloning a Repo
  • Adding gitignore file
    • Creating the .gitignore file
    • If you accidentally committed node_modules
  • Basic git flow for pairing

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Basic git commands

These commands are for git on your local computer, git and github are two separate things. If you're curious git vs. github.

Get & Create Project

Command	Description	Example
git init	Creates an empty git repository inside your present working directory	git init
git clone your-github-link	Creates a copy of the specified git repository inside your present working directory	git clone//[email protected]/ [username][repository-name].git

Save Your Work

Command	Description	Example
git status	Shows the current working state of the git repository	git status
git add <file-name>	Add files to the staging area, you can use the dot operator to add everything to the staging area by typing git add .	git add work.js
git commit -m "<commit-message>"	Records all the added changes to the repository, write meaningful messages to remind yourself of what was done to the project	git commit -m "first commit"

Share Your Work

Command	Description	Example
git remote add origin <github-link>	Connects your local git repository to a specified github repository, you should only have to do this once and you will not have to do this if you used git clone	git remote add origin [email protected]/[username][repository-name].git
git push	Updates github with any changes that have been committed on the local git repository, think uploading	git push
git pull	Updates your local git repository with any changes made to github, think downloading	git pull

Other Useful Commands

Command	Description	Example
git branch -M <new-branch-name>	Tech is ever evolving and in keeping up with the times it's best to be proactive and change our main branch name to something more appropriate. This is a trend in tech that you should get used to.	git branch -M main

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How to download a project

Reference Week 1 Thursday here for how to download a project from AA Open

Basic setup for pairing

Important: First determine who will create the repo on GitHub as the
instructions for each partner will be different.

Creating a Repo

• ONLY ONE PERSON

  • Create a repository on github by pressing the + create in the top right corner of your github. Click: New repository

  

• Name your repository and be sure to set it to private, also don't press any of the check boxes

  

• Connect your local git repository

  • Once you have created a repository it will bring you to a page with directions for setup
  • Recommended: Create a new local repository by entering these commands one line at a
    time in the directory that you wish to become a git repository
  • IMPORTANT: Remember that git add . is the command to add all files to the staging area. git add README.MD will not add all your files.

  

EXAMPLE

• Run ls and make sure that the structure of the project you are pushing should look similar below (problems, test, etc.). Also notice git add .

  • ls
  • git init
  • git add .
  • git commit -m "first commit"

• Add your repo origin provided by github
  • git branch -M main
  • git remote add origin [your-github-repo-link]
  • git push -u origin main

PAT Setup

If Github asks for your credentials (username / password). Your own password won't work. You will have to replace it with a Personal Access Token (PAT acts as your password). PAT SETUP LINK

• Reminder: When setting up secrets manager on git, we will also have to download git on our main system if windows (sometimes we only have it on our wsl)

IMPORTANT

• When generating token: Make sure to check all the fields for repo permission.
• DO NOT show your PAT to anyone
• For WSL users, when pasting (right click) your PAT into the password section, your password will be invisible, it will seem like it's not there, but it is there. So only paste once.

Inviting Teammate

Refresh your github; your repo should like something like below. If you run into any issues CALL AN INSTRUCTOR ASAP for help!

• Invite your partner

  • While on the page for the new repo click the settings cog above it should take you to
    something that looks like this

    

  • Click on Invite Collaborator and search your partner's github username

    

• Lastly, your cohort is your most valuable resource during a/A make sure to follow each other
  on github to make it easier to share projects and work together!

Cloning a Repo

• Once your pair has created a repository and invited you, you should receive an email
  on the account you linked when you created your github
• After you have accepted the invite in your email you should be redirected to
  something that looks like this
  
• After accepting the invitation you will be redirected to the github repository
  where you can copy the link
  
• Inside the directory you want to copy the project into run the command
  git clone "copied-link"
• You should now have all of the files and directories on your local machine, don't forget
  to follow your partner on github!

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Adding gitignore file

Important: If you ever npm install or if there's a package.json file, you will typically want a .gitignore file and ignoring the node_modules folder before pushing onto Github

Creating the .gitignore file

The .gitignore file allows us to add files or directories that we DO NOT want to be commited or saved to our git history (therefore 'ignoring' it in 'git').

• Remember, when you first run npm install it will create the node_modules directory and fetch the code dependencies that our project will need which will take the list of dependencies (ingredients) from the package.json file to download from.

  • 

• Here, we do not want to push up the node_modules directory to our Github repository as the items inside it can become very big and it is unecessary to do so since anyone can fetch a list of those dependencies if they have the package.json file using npm install. .gitignore will be a great tool to handle this issue for us!

• Create a .gitignore file on the same level as your package.json

  • 

• Inside our .gitignore file, add the following text, node_modules which will now ignore the folder node_modules from being committed to our git history.

  • 

• Now we just need to commit our updated .gitignore file:

  • git add .
  • git commit -m "message here"
  • git push

If you accidentally committed node_modules

• If you happen to commit the node_modules directory to your history before adding the .gitignore file, then we can do this to remove it from our commit history:

  • run git rm -r --cached node_modules
  • add .gitignore file with node_modules in it like the example above if you haven't yet
  • run git add .
  • run git commit -m "message here"
  • run git push

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Basic git flow for pairing

IMPORTANT To avoid merge errors and conflict ONLY ONE person should be working on the SAME FILE at a time. TLDR: only one person should be coding, other navigating and then swap.

Once you and your pair are set up and working on the same repository things get a lot easier. As you switch back and forth from driver to navigator you will need to follow these steps.

Steps for the driver:

• Save your work

• Type git status into your terminal, you should see something like this:

  

• Type git add . in order to add all of your changes to the staging area

• Retype git status in order to confirm everything worked correctly:

  

• Type git commit -m <meaningful_commit> replacing meaningful_commit with your message

• Retype git status one last time:

  

• Type git push in order to send it up to GitHub:

  

• Wait for the navigator to pull

• Begin navigating

Steps for the navigator:

• Wait for the driver to push
• Type git pull
• Begin driving