Getting Started With Github

In this article, we will go over everything there is to know about GitHub, including how to use it, its importance, and GitHub tips and tricks. Examine this further.

What is GitHub?

GitHub is a cloud-based enterprise-transforming, startup-launching, community-driven and highly secure open source championing platform. It’s where the world’s software is created. GitHub is the world’s largest developer, programming, and software engineering community. You can meet a lot of developers and engineers on GitHub. It serves as a meeting place for those interested in technology. It is a platform where you can store any code, software, or app that you have created.

It boasts of hosting over 73 million software developers and 4 million organizations on its website, and as you know GitHub is open source so, it is free for all and free from all kinds of scrutiny; anyone can put any app or code on it for others to see. Unlike what happens on Apple’s App Store or Samsung’s equivalent, where every app is critiqued at several levels before making it to the mobile phone application store, GitHub is a web-based software development platform where software developers can store, track, and collaborate on projects. It enables the developer to upload his or her own code files and collaborate on open source projects with other developers. It also functions as a social networking site where developers can freely collaborate and promote their projects.

GitHub is the world’s largest and most comprehensive development platform. It is used by millions of developers. It develops algorithms and global businesses. GitHub provides advanced security features such as automatic vulnerability detection, secret scanning, and more.

What is Git?

To understand GitHub better, you must first understand Git. Git is an open source version control right? But what does that really mean? If a group of developers creates something like an app, they will make constant changes to the app’s code and release new versions even after its initial release. A version control system will keep these revisions untangled and in order by storing the modifications in the central repository. It will make it easier for developers to collaborate because they will be able to download a new version of the app, make changes, and upload the most recent revision, and every new developer involved will be able to view these new changes, download them, and contribute to the project. People who are not involved can still download and use the associated files.

Git is primarily used for managing and tracking file revisions, but it can be used with any file type.

Git Clone

Git clone is a command that makes a local copy of a remote repository. Git Clone is a Git command that targets an existing repository and creates a clone or copy of it in a new directory.

Use of Git Clone

Git clone is a command that is used to copy a remote repository to a new location. The original repository is stored in a local file system or on a remote machine that supports the protocols.

Cloning a specific Folder

The repository located at “repo” should be copied and placed into the folder called directory on your own machine.

Cloning a specific Tag

Clone the repository located at <repo> and the only clone refer for <tag>.

Configuration options of Git Clone

The tools you need to configure Git so that it functions as best suited you and your team are known as configuration tools. Here are some of the most typical:

Git clone –branch

The -branch arguments specify a branch to clone instead of the one indicated by the remote HEAD, which is usually the master branch. Furthermore, you can achieve the same effect by passing a tag instead of a branch.

Git clone –bare

Git clone will make a copy of the remote repository with an excluded working directory if the -bare parameter is provided. The project history will therefore be created in the repository, which can be pushed to or extracted from but cannot be modified.

Git clone — mirror

The -bare argument’s behavior is adopted by the -mirror argument, thus passing either one will pass the other. The mirror parameter will clone all of the remote repository’s extended refs. You’ll be able to keep the configuration for remote branch tracking.

How to use GitHub

=> It is simple to create an account on GitHub. Simply go to the GitHub website and create an account before installing Git on your system. Then, in your terminal, make yourself known to your Git by setting up your user name in each repository, as well as sharing your email with GitHub, and you can begin your journey with GitHub.

=> Following the creation of the account. Make a repository, or “repo” for short. This is where you will keep your code.

=> Create a file.

=> Make a commit. When you create or modify a file, you create a Git commit to save the new version.

=> Connect your computer system to your repository.

GitHub repositories

I will discuss the top 5 GitHub repositories in this part.

• System Design Primer: This repository contains all the materials specifically targeted at end-to-end system design, according to the system design primer.
• Build your own X: The tutorials in this repository will show you how to build nearly anything related to software engineering.
• Real-world: This GitHub repository aids in the creation of challenging full stack applications.
• Awesome: This repository contains all the essential information on a specific topic.
• Computer science: This repository was created in accordance with the requirements for undergraduate majors in computer science.

There is something intriguing in this for you if you are a student. “GitHub Student Developer Pack,” In general, it only has premium features, but if you are a student, you can use all of its free capabilities. Additionally, GitHub has a command line interface. Simply downloading it to your computer can significantly improve the value of your talents and resume.

Importance of GitHub

• GitHub is useful for students and beginners because it allows you to save all of your projects in one place and keep them on a server so you can access them from anywhere at any time.
• On GitHub, you can easily share your project with anyone
• You have the option of making your project private or public. You can set up both a public and a private repository.
• When you create a project on GitHub, it becomes available to the entire team. It will help you with teamwork.
• You can include a link of your GitHub profile in your CV. During the interview, many companies will also request your GitHub profile or a list of projects you have created. If you include this, it will be a plus for you.

Why should we use GitHub?

Here I will give you the reasons why everyone should use GitHub.

GitHub is the home of more than 50 million developers

As you may already be aware, it is open source, which is a huge benefit for both organizations and individual developers. If you are an individual developer and the organizations you want to work with or who may hire you use GitHub, knowing this will give you a significant advantage.

The best Git provider

Previously, GitHub’s primary focus was repositories and Git management; now, it is the best Git provider. This is important for development teams of all sizes, but for enterprises, the ability to collaborate internally across teams is priceless.

Native Mobile App

GitHub launched its own mobile app, and the response has been incredible. People use it for a variety of purposes; initially, the app was designed primarily for comment and issue collaboration; however, people began using it for other purposes as well, and the most important activity in the app is actually code review, which is fantastic. With mobility, people can review their codes at any time and from any location.

Unlimited private and public repos

Have unlimited private and public repositories. Most other tools have a limit on the number of free repos you can create on the private side, as well as a limit on free collaboration, which means you need to pay licenses if you want more, but GitHub has free unlimited repos.

GitHub Actions

GitHub Action is GitHub’s most powerful automatic engine. Some people believe that GitHub is only for CI/CD, despite the fact that they are the most powerful CI/CD service on both public and private repositories. Essentially, if you can automate it, you can do it with actions.

GitHub Insights

Metrics and monitoring are critical, and what if we had a platform that did it for us? That is exactly what GitHub insights is. It provides insightful information, thus the name “GitHub Insights,” that you can use to monitor your organization, team, and work. It provides a lot of data around collaboration, issue resolution time, pull request merge, and so on. All data relevant to the development team and the enterprise cloud

Dependabot and automatic PR for vulnerabilities

This is a fantastic reason to use GitHub. Using dependabot, GitHub can scan your dependencies and vulnerabilities to see if anything in your repo needs to be upgraded or updated, and if so, it will generate an automatic pull request for you to upgrade and update your dependencies, resolving the issue.

GitHub is backed by Microsoft

That means that all of Microsoft’s experience in enterprises and running such services is now available on GitHub, bringing many benefits such as platform stability and enterprise focus. Microsoft is an enterprise company, and now GitHub has the experience to serve enterprise clients.

Tips and tricks for GitHub

There are some GitHub tips and tricks that can help you increase your efficiency, whether you are a regular user of GitHub or a beginner.

• The first is GitHub shortcuts, such as pressing one key to see a lot of things on this website, or pressing a question mark (?) to see all the keyboard shortcuts. If you want to see a pull request for your code, it will display the keyword. So you can change the page with a single key. You can learn these keys and work much faster, giving you the feel of a pro programmer.
• There is a website called Git.io where you can enter any GitHub URL, and it will give you the short URL. After entering any URL into this website, it will generate a short URL for you to click on, which will take you to the same page of GitHub, so you can shorten any long links on GitHub that you want to share with your friends or any other platform.
• There is a GitHub keyword called “blame.” You can track all changes made to your file by clicking on this button. Using this button, you can see how many new lines were added and deleted in parallel.
• You can check the specific line of code where it is true or false in GitHub by sending the links to the lines, and it will highlight those lines of code.

Conclusion

GitHub is ultimately a fantastic platform for developers. Future versions of this will be more successful and efficient, allowing you to have a successful career. Now you know what is GitHub? It is the student who is learning the code. It is a CEO who is transforming a multinational corporation. It’s a place for anyone from anywhere to build anything, with 21000 strangers working together to take the first picture of a black hole, anything you believe the world requires.