INTRODUCTION TO GIT AND GITHUB — PART 1

Overview

This is a guided tour that walks you through how to use Git.

What the heck is Git?

Git is a version control system for tracking and managing project files on a computer. With the help of Git, developers across the world are able to collaborate on a project.

Think of a version control as a tool that manages the changes in your project till the end. Changes may be adding a new file, adding a new folder, deleting a file or a folder etc.

There are numerous version control systems out there, some of which are Git, Mercurial, Beanstalk, Apache subversion, AWS codeCommit and more. For this tutorial, we are only focusing on Git.

What do we use Git for?

• Keeping track of changes in code
• Synchronises code between or among people.
• Test changes to code without losing the original.
• Revert back to old version of code.

What then is GitHub? Is Git the same as GitHub?

The answer is a big “No”. GitHub is a code hosting platform on the internet that allows for version control collaboration. Still confused? …. GitHub only allows you to host your repositories (folders that contain files) on a remote server. Git on the other hand, acts like a ‘mediator’ so to speak between your local repository or your computer and your remote repository (GitHub).

So now that we know what Git and GitHub are, we will dive straight into how to install Git in the next tutorial. We will also take a look at some of the commonly used Git commands.

Have a nice day !! and see you in the next tutorial.