Mastering Git and GitHub Essentials: Hands-on Git

Master version control by learning how it monitors code changes, enables teamwork, and protects against data loss, while comparing centralized and distributed systems like SVN and Git.

Discover git, a distributed version control system created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 to manage the Linux kernel, prized for its flexibility, speed, and strong community support.

Download and install git on Windows, macOS, or Linux by following defaults, choosing 64-bit installation where applicable, and verify the setup with git dash dash version.

Learn how to use the Windows command prompt, a text based interface, and navigate folders, create and delete directories, and manage files with commands like cd, mkdir, del, and echo.

Learn to navigate macOS and Linux terminals using pwd, ls, and cd to locate and move through directories, then create, rename, remove files with mkdir, touch, mv, rm, rmdir.

Explore major web-based version control platforms, with a focus on GitHub, its social features like following, starring, and forking, and how to create your first GitHub account.

Create a GitHub account on github.com by entering email, setting a password and username, solving a verification puzzle, and verifying via email to access your initial dashboard.

Create and name a repository on GitHub, choose public or private access, set the owner/username, and decide on a readme and license. Learn to push and commit in future tutorials.

Learn to configure your git username and email via the command line using git config --global user.name and git config --global user.email, and verify settings for GitHub readiness.

Master the git workflow fundamentals from creating a working directory to pushing changes to a remote repository. Learn init, add to staging area, commit, and push to GitHub or GitLab.

Create a new directory on your computer, add a readme.txt using mkdir, cd, echo, and ls commands, then connect the folder to your GitHub repository.

Convert a simple directory into a git repository on your local machine with git init, then regularly check its status using git status to confirm initialization.

Learn to manage a local git repository by checking status and identifying untracked files like readme.txt. Use git add to stage changes before committing a snapshot of your work.

Check git status to confirm staged changes, then commit the readme.txt with a descriptive message to record the addition on the master branch and reflect it on GitHub.

Connect a local repository to a remote host such as GitHub by adding origin with the https URL, verify the connection with git remote -v, and prepare to push commits.

Push your local repository to GitHub by configuring the origin to main. Handle token authentication with a personal access token and verify a successful push.

Fetch retrieves changes from the remote repository without merging them into your local working directory. Pull updates your local repository by fetching and automatically merging remote changes.

Learn how to use git fetch and git pull to sync a remote repository with your local working directory, including when to switch branches and check status.

Master the seven-step git exercise: create a GitHub repository, initialize a local directory, add and commit a text file, push to main, and pull changes back.

Explore how branches provide independent lines of development, isolating changes in feature branches so multiple developers can work concurrently and safely merge back into the main branch.

Discover how the head pointer tracks the tip of your current branch, how new branches inherit commits, and how git checkout or switch moves the head.

Create and switch to a new branch named feature A, commit changes, then push to the remote repository. Verify the new branch appears on GitHub alongside main.

Add and commit changes locally on your new branch, then push to the remote repository with git push -u origin feature a to keep collaborators updated.

Learn to merge a feature branch into the main branch using git merge, switch heads with git checkout, review history with git log, and push updates to the remote repository.

Learn to delete local git branches: use git branch -D for unmerged, git branch -d for merged, after switching off the branch, then push with git push origin --delete <branch>.

Mastering Git and GitHub essentials guides you through eight steps to create two branches, edit the Readme file, commit and push changes, merge into the default branch.