Git in practice

27 February 2019

09:00 - 16:00

Instructors: Sabry Razick, Anne Fouilloux

Helpers: Annika Rockenberger

It is a self-organized 1-day workshop based on CodeRefinery lesson material and requires basic knowledge of git to fully take advantage of the workshop. If you are willing to attend this workshop but do not know Git yet, you can register to the workshop Introduction to Git for novices that we are offering on February 15 2019.

General Information

Where: room 209, Niels Henrik Abels hus, Moltke Moes vei 35, Oslo. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

When: 27 February 2019. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below). They are also required to abide by Code of Conduct.

Prerequisites: Participants must have attended a Carpentry workshop on Git for novices or must already have a basic knowledge of Git to attend this workshop.

Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organizers have checked that:

Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.

Contact: Please email contact-us@swcarpentry.uio.no for more information.


Schedule

Day 2

09:00 Version control with Git
09:45 Archeology with Git
10:30 Coffee
10:45 Collaborative distributed Version Control
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 Collaborative distributed Version Control
14:30 Coffee
15:30 Branch design
16:45 Wrap-up
16:00 END

We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.


Setup

To participate in a workshop, you will need access to the software described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

The Bash Shell

Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do simple tasks more quickly.

Windows

Video Tutorial
  1. Download the Git for Windows installer.
  2. Run the installer and follow the steps below:
    1. Click on "Next" four times (two times if you've previously installed Git). You don't need to change anything in the Information, location, components, and start menu screens.
    2. Select “Use the nano editor by default” and click on “Next”.
    3. Keep "Use Git from the command line and..." selected and click on "Next". If you forgot to do this programs that you need for the workshop will not work properly. If this happens rerun the installer and select the appropriate option.
    4. Click on "Next".
    5. Keep "Checkout Windows-style, commit Unix-style line endings" selected and click on "Next".
    6. Select "Use Windows' default console window" and click on "Next".
    7. Click on "Install".
    8. Click on "Finish".
  3. If your "HOME" environment variable is not set (or you don't know what this is):
    1. Open command prompt (Open Start Menu then type cmd and press [Enter])
    2. Type the following line into the command prompt window exactly as shown:

      setx HOME "%USERPROFILE%"

    3. Press [Enter], you should see SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.
    4. Quit command prompt by typing exit then pressing [Enter]

This will provide you with both Git and Bash in the Git Bash program.

macOS

The default shell in all versions of macOS is Bash, so no need to install anything. You access Bash from the Terminal (found in /Applications/Utilities). See the Git installation video tutorial for an example on how to open the Terminal. You may want to keep Terminal in your dock for this workshop.

Linux

The default shell is usually Bash, but if your machine is set up differently you can run it by opening a terminal and typing bash. There is no need to install anything.

Git

Git is a version control system that lets you track who made changes to what when and has options for easily updating a shared or public version of your code on github.com. You will need a supported web browser.

You will need an account at github.com for parts of the Git lesson. Basic GitHub accounts are free. We encourage you to create a GitHub account if you don't have one already. Please consider what personal information you'd like to reveal. For example, you may want to review these instructions for keeping your email address private provided at GitHub.

Windows

Git should be installed on your computer as part of your Bash install (described above).

macOS

Please open the Terminal app, type git --version and press Enter/Return. If it's not installed already, follow the instructions to Install the "command line developer tools". Don't click "Get Xcode", because that will take too long and is not necessary for our Git lesson. After installing these tools, there won't be anything in your /Applications folder, as they and Git are command line programs. For older versions of OS X (10.5-10.8) use the most recent available installer labelled "snow-leopard" available here. Because this installer is not signed by the developer, you may have to right click (control click) on the .pkg file, click Open, and click Open in the pop-up dialog. You can watch a video tutorial about this case.

Linux

If Git is not already available on your machine you can try to install it via your distro's package manager. For Debian/Ubuntu run sudo apt-get install git and for Fedora run sudo dnf install git.

Text Editor

When you're writing code, it's nice to have a text editor that is optimized for writing code, with features like automatic color-coding of key words. The default text editor on macOS and Linux is usually set to Vim, which is not famous for being intuitive. If you accidentally find yourself stuck in it, hit the Esc key, followed by :+Q+! (colon, lower-case 'q', exclamation mark), then hitting Return to return to the shell.

Windows

nano is a basic editor and the default that instructors use in the workshop. It is installed along with Git.

Others editors that you can use are Notepad++ or Sublime Text. Be aware that you must add its installation directory to your system path. Please ask your instructor to help you do this.

macOS

nano is a basic editor and the default that instructors use in the workshop. See the Git installation video tutorial for an example on how to open nano. It should be pre-installed.

Others editors that you can use are BBEdit or Sublime Text.

Linux

nano is a basic editor and the default that instructors use in the workshop. It should be pre-installed.

Others editors that you can use are Gedit, Kate or Sublime Text.