Git & GitHub
Git is a ‘version control system’, which is a fancy way of saying that it has the potential to store a complete, line-by-line history of your work… so long as it’s in a plain-text format like Markdown or Python/R code files. Git updates all of this history on your computer every time you ‘commit’ the changes you’ve told it about by ‘adding’ a file. With GitHub you can then synchronise these changes so that you have a full backup (code and content are no longer just on your computer), publish a web site (via github.io), or collaborate with other people (via public, shared ‘repositories’).
While it is not necessary that you learn all about how GitHub works now, it will be really helpful if you can get yourself set up with a GitHub account and install Git locally so that you’re ready to get when we start the term.
Get a GitHub Account
You will need to go to GitHub.com and then click the Sign up button at the top right. Follow the instructions for creating a new account from there.
Although you can always change it later (so if you’ve opened your GitHub account using your UCL email don’t panic!), you may find it easier to:
- Open a GitHub account using a personal email address to which you expect to always have access.
- Then associate your UCL email address to this GitHub account so that you gain from any educational benefits offered by GitHub (there are some around private respositories and so on).
Install Git Locally
You can follow along with GitHub’s own instructions for installing Git on your own computer. In many cases (especially if you use a Mac) you may find that Git is already installed, you just didn’t know it.