GitHub usage example
GitHub is a cloud platform that lets you host projects through the Git version-control system. Code can be stored privately or publicly, although it is most often shared openly. The purpose of the platform is to make it easier to share projects so that other developers can collaborate by fixing bugs or implementing new features.
Personally, I consider Git one of the best designed version control tools available. It is efficient, reliable and handles a large number of files very well. Its purpose is to keep track of changes applied to a project and to coordinate the work of several people on the files stored in a shared repository.
Usage example: create a GitHub project
To show its benefits, here is a set of basic commands that can help you decide whether to use this tool.
Assuming you already have an account on https://github.com/, the first step is to create a new repository and fill in the form shown below.
Another key requirement is having Git installed locally. The official installation guide for each operating system is available here: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git
Upload the project to GitHub
We will use Git itself to upload the project to the GitHub repository. On Linux or Mac you would use the normal system terminal. On Windows, the recommended option is Git Bash, which is installed together with Git.
Once Git is installed, go to the project folder in the terminal. There you initialize the local repository with init. In my case, because I was using PyCharm, the next step was to create a .gitignore file with touch .gitignore and add the .idea folder as an ignored path, since it does not provide value to the shared project.
After that, run add . to stage all files except the ones excluded in .gitignore, and then create the first commit with git commit -m "first commit".
If we continue with the same goal, the next point is to create the main branch, add the remote repository URL and push all the information to GitHub:
At that point, you already have a cloud copy of your project and can continue modifying it knowing that it is easy to replicate or share.
Recommended extra steps
Within good Git workflows, it is advisable to include a project explanation file called README.md.
The default version usually contains very little information, so my recommendation is to create a new branch from the main branch before editing it:
Once the branch exists and the README has been improved, the next step is to merge the changes from modificar_readme back into Main with commands like the following:
As you can see, the process ends with a push, meaning that the updated project is uploaded to the cloud. If you want to see an example of the resulting README file, you can check https://github.com/al118345/envio_email.
Finally, if you make a mistake or want to remove all Git metadata from the project, you can always delete the .git folder and all its contents: