how to use git

git is a version control system. It’s pretty confusing at first, but once you sort out what it can do and can’t do, it starts to get better.

This tutorial is pretty good: http://git-scm.com/docs/gittutorial

The best way to learn git is to find someone who knows git really well and sort out issues with them. Ask on IRC if you get stuck. (There should be a better buddy system for this, but until there is, we do what we can.)

A good introduction to git is to create a repository for your public_html directory. This will allow you to back up your public web directory.

First thing you will want to do is set up git.

If you don’t have a GitHub account, you will want one for this exercise. If you choose another Git host, you will need to work out some parts of this setup on your own.

Once you have a git account, you will want to set up git for your geosparkies.com account. Use the email address that you used to create your GitHub account. You can register multiple accounts with GitHub if needed.

git config --global user.name "Your Name Here"
git config --global user.email youremail@example.org

You will also want to create a .gitignore file. This file defines what things you want git to ignore, such as editor temporary files or directories you may not want to keep in git such as generated files or private files you upload to a public repository. The .gitignore file can be created in your home directory, but I like to create it in the project directory.

Here is an example .gitignore file:

# files being edited
*~
*swp
# Generated files
tilde_graphs
# Private files
diary.txt

Now go create a repository on GitHub. In our examples we are using mytildeweb as the repo name, but you can choose whatever name works for you. If you do change the repository name be sure to update the commands with the proper one.

Now we should be ready to create and upload the repository.

cd public_html/
# This will initialize public_html as a repository
git init
# Adds all files to the repo. "." means "the current directory" (public_html, in this case)
# Note: you can also add files one at a time
git add .
# Commits files to local repo
git commit -m "first commit of tildeweb"
# Tells git where your remote repo is
git remote add origin https://github.com/<yourgithubuser>/mytildeweb.git
# Uploads to the remote repo
git push -u origin master

Your files should now be on GitHub. If you make a change and you want to update, do the following after making your edits:

git add index.html
git commit -m "updated blog"
git push origin master