Git & GitHub Crash Course for Beginners

Explore how version control systems track changes to your files, preserve history, enable collaboration, and recover previous versions.

Install git on Windows by downloading the x64 setup from gitscm.com, run the installer, and complete the wizard questions to finish the installation.

Initialize a git local repository with the git init command, creating a repository in a directory and a .git folder to track changes in the working tree and staging area.

Understand git architecture by exploring the working area, staging area (index), and repository, and learn how changes become commits through the workflow from untracked files to the repository.

Master the staging area, the index that previews changes before committing, enabling partial commits and cleaner history through selective git add and status checks.

Learn how a local repository stores commit snapshots in Git, create commits with meaningful messages, view history with git log, and manage the master branch and commit IDs.

Understand remote repositories and how GitHub enables multi-developer collaboration with push, pull, clone, and pull requests, plus Git versus GitHub in DevOps.

Create a local repository, initialize it with git init, connect to a remote, push commits, and set up a Node.js project using npm in Visual Studio Code.

Initialize a Node.js project with npm init -y to create package.json and app.js, then test by running node app.js and inspect the local repository status with git.

Create a .gitignore to exclude node_modules and config files like package.json and package.log.json, commit only app.js, and keep git status clean before pushing.

Learn to create a local git repository, initialize with git init, stage and commit changes, manage untracked files, add a .gitignore, install modules, and connect the local repo to GitHub.

Learn how to link a local git repository to a remote GitHub repository by adding origin, configuring the remote URL, and preparing for authentication with a token or SSH.

Create a personal access token (PAT) in developer settings, set scopes and expiration, then push code to a remote repo on the main branch using token authentication.

Learn how git branches provide parallel development lines, manage dev one and dev two alongside the main branch, and merge changes back when ready.

Learn how branching enables parallel development, with main as branch and dev1 and dev2 feature branches, reviewed by a code owner and merged back via git branch commands on GitHub.

Clone the repository, create local branches dev1 and dev2, switch between them with git checkout, and push these branches to the remote origin.