Git and GitHub

Let’s start with the basics. Git is a version control system that allows you to track changes to your files and collaborate with others. It is used to manage the history of your code and to merge changes from different branches.

I can understand that as of now these terms like version control, branches, and merges are not familiar to you. But don’t worry, we will learn them in this tutorial.

Git and GitHub are different

Git is a version control system that is used to track changes to your files. It is a free and open-source software that is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Remember, Git is a software and can be installed on your computer.

GitHub is a web-based hosting service for Git repositories. GitHub is an online platform that allows you to store and share your code with others. It is a popular platform for developers to collaborate on projects and to share code. It is not that GitHub is the only provider of Git repositories, but it is one of the most popular ones.

A little on version control systems

Version control systems are used to manage the history of your code. They allow you to track changes to your files and to collaborate with others. Version control systems are essential for software development.

Consider version control as a checkpoint in a game. You can move to any time in the game and you can always go back to the previous checkpoint. This is the same concept in software development.

Before Git became mainstream, version control systems like SCCS (Source Code Control System) were used. SCCS was a proprietary software that was used to manage the history of code. It was expensive and not very user-friendly.

Git was created to replace SCCS and to make version control more accessible and user-friendly. Some common version control systems are Subversion (SVN), CVS, and Perforce.

Learning Path

In this tutorial, we will learn the basics of Git and GitHub. We will start with the basics and then move on to more advanced topics. We will also learn how to use Git and GitHub for collaboration and version control.

By the end of this tutorial, you will have a good understanding of Git and GitHub and will be able to use them to manage your code effectively.

We will go in this journey something like this:

• Get the basics
• Use it daily
• Face the problems
• Solve them
• Learn more

We will focus more on Git first. Once you understand Git, moving towards GitHub will be easy.

Install Git

To install Git, you can use the command line or visit the official website and download the installer for your operating system. Git is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux at:git-scm.com/downloads

Account on GitHub

Another step is to create an account on GitHub. Later in this tutorial, we will walk you through the process of linking your GitHub account with your machine.

You cannot push your code to GitHub without SSH key setup. Password authentication is not recommended and mostly disabled. So, you need to set up SSH key authentication. We will cover that in a later part of the tutorial.

Conclusion

In this part, we have learned the basics of Git and GitHub. We have also learned how to install Git and create a GitHub account. We explored the importance of version control systems and how they are used in software development.