Version control with git and GitHub

Intro and Objectives

Learning the basics of version control with git and GitHub are pretty essential skills in the data science world. Once you learn to use version control, you’ll wonder how you ever did without it. It provides tremendous peace of mind.

After doing the activities in this section, you will be able to:

• understand the basic concepts of version control and the use of git

• create git repos and use git to stage and commit changes

• review the history of changes and revert to old versions

• create remote repos in GitHub and push and pull between local and remote repos

Readings

• What is git? How to use it. Why to use it

Downloads and other resources

You’ll need this file for the screencast below.

• downloads_git_intro.zip

Some other resources:

• git cheat sheet (from GitHub)

• git and GitHub videos for beginners - Kevin Markham (Data School)

Activities

• I’ve created an intro to git and GitHub that uses a simple Python project for the example.

  • SCREENCAST: Intro to git and GitHub (41:25)

If you have little or no experience with git, I also highly recommend that you:

• Read through the Version Control with Git lesson at Software Carpentry (up through using GitHub).

Explore (OPTIONAL)

• Version control for transparency and collaboration (from the RTWDS book)

• git - Getting Started- the git book

• git - The simple guide

• Step by step guide to contributing on GitHub- Kevin Markham (Data School)

• A successful git branching model