What is Github?
GitHub is a web-based platform with millions of users where developers and programmers from different parts of the world can come together to share software, frameworks, and code, collaborate on projects, or save their own projects in the GitHub cloud system for easy access with various tools.
You can create your projects on Github publicly or privately. Additionally, you can track your projects using the desktop application available for both Windows and MacOS operating systems.
The GitHub platform also provides many conveniences to developer companies. A project saved in GitHub's cloud system can be developed remotely by many people. It's possible to see exactly who accessed the project at what time and where changes were made.
GitHub introduction video
The intensification of current technologies and knowledge sharing has led to faster development in the software industry compared to the past. Collaboration, where different people from anywhere in the world collaborate on the same project, has become a widely practiced method.
In the GitHub system, you can contribute to a project by writing code or become a sponsor. This method, which can be done for investment purposes, can provide returns depending on the success of the project. However, for now, Turkey is excluded from this scope, sponsorship can be applied from 30 different regions around the world through this system.
Thanks to systems like Github, projects with more open-source code are being implemented in many fields such as science, software, industry, and technology. Sharing knowledge only increases it further.
How to use GitHub ?
Firstly, you need to sign up for GitHub with a username and email, which has a user-friendly interface. Go to the homepage from this address and create a username for yourself. If you keep your projects open on GitHub, using the system is free. For private projects, it is possible to create a paid plan.
If you are entering the system for the first time, you are directed to an educational tool called github-learning-lab, and here, with the help of a bot, you can learn step by step how the system works. You can continue from this area, but we will also continue to provide information from here.
To store something on GitHub, you need to create a repository for yourself. In this area assigned to your own username, you can upload your projects.
Common GitHub terms:
Git
Git is a program installed on your computer. It works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux systems. Git terminal allows you to perform simple or much more complicated operations, such as uploading files to GitHub and similar repository systems using specific commands, creating a workspace on your computer, and uploading this project to a directory linked to your GitHub username.
In addition, Git can be used to install some useful tools created by many programmers on your system. Python libraries and some frameworks can be installed on Git terminal with some commands you write.
Besides the terminal installed on your computer when Git is installed, there are many other interfaces you can use, called GUI. You can examine them from here and choose a GUI suitable for yourself and your operating system.
Repository
It is a file directory and depot that you will open under your GitHub username. You can name it whatever you want and save your project in this depot. You can create a private or public repository.
Branch
Let's think of the project as a straight line. After creating the main body, you can create a branch at any point of the work, and you or someone else can carry out the rest of your work from that point on that branch.
Origin
The main branch of the work is referred to as Origin. An active branch can also be Origin. The first created Branch is referred to as Master, and Origin is usually the first created Branch.
"git config" Command
The git config command performs the configuration process that links the git terminal on your computer to your GitHub account.
git config --global user.name "your username"
git config --global user.email "your user email address"
After entering these two commands, the operations you perform with the Git terminal will now also result in changes to your GitHub account.
"git init" Command
The git init command is used to define a folder you created on your desktop to Git. Let's first go to the desktop to create a folder:
cd ~/Desktop
This command takes you to the desktop directory. Then let's create a new directory (folder) on the desktop.
mkdir MyProject
Now, there should be a folder named "MyProject" on our desktop, check the desktop. Now we will enter the directory of the newly created folder with the command we will write.
cd MyProject/
We will turn this folder into a git folder so that when we write the project name on GitHub, it understands which folder we are referring to.
$ git init
When we enter the command, Git will process the folder and write a message indicating that it has created an empty repository named MyProject.
Initialized empty Git repository in C:/Users/Arif/Desktop/MyProject/.git/
"git clone" Command
With the git clone command, you clone (copy) a repository from GitHub to your computer.
For example, I want to save the repository belonging to the GitHub introduction Slide show created on my GitHub account to my computer. By opening the Git terminal;
git clone GitHub - ariphuslu/github-slideshow: A robot powered training repository
typing the command will be sufficient. The terminal will start the process immediately, and the files will be saved to your computer from the address where the file directory registered on the server is located. The part after github.com in the address shows which "username" the file is cloned from.
In the terminal, you will see a report like this:
Cloning into ‘github-slideshow’..
remote: Enumerating objects: 380, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (380/380), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (266/266), done.
remote: Total 380 (delta 95), reused 380 (delta 95), pack-reused 0
Receiving objects: 100% (380/380), 3.44 MiB | 1.09 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (95/95), done.
Thus, the process is completed. You will see that the files are copied to the MyProject directory on the desktop that we previously defined to Git.
