Version Control with Git

Hosted by the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Libraries

About this workshop

This workshop is for those beginning to explore the concept of version control, as well as anyone seeking to refine their skills. Git is a version control system that lets you manage and track changes to files on your computer through the command line interface. Topics covered will include configuring a local repository on your computer, modifying files and committing changes, and exploring version histories.

Presenters

Sarah Young
Principal Librarian
Office: 109G, Hunt Library
sarahy@andrew.cmu.edu

Chasz Griego
Science and Engineering Librarian
Office: 4416, Sorrells Library
cgriego@andrew.cmu.edu

Learning Objectives

Workshop attendees will be able to:

Understand the benefits of an automated version control system
Configure settings in Git
Create a local Git repository
Track changes to files with commits

Setup

To be best prepared for this workshop, please follow the setup instructions prior to attending.

Interactive Notepad

During the workshop, you can ask and answer questions in this Etherpad, a notepad for live collaboration.

Pre-Workshop Survey

Before the start of the workshop, please complete this survey. Thank you!!

Schedule

Section	Time
Setup and Pre-Workshop Survey
Automated Version Control	00:00
Setting Up Git	00:05
Creating a Repository	00:10
Tracking Changes	00:20
Break	00:25
Exploring History	00:45
Ignoring Things	01:10
Post-Workshop Survey	01:20
Finish	01:30

Spooky Space Explorers

Wolfman and Dracula have been hired by Universal Missions (a space services spinoff from Euphoric State University) to investigate if it is possible to send their next planetary lander to Mars. They want to be able to work on the plans at the same time, but they have run into problems doing this in the past. If they take turns, each one will spend a lot of time waiting for the other to finish, but if they work on their own copies and email changes back and forth things will be lost, overwritten, or duplicated.

A colleague suggests using version control to manage their work. Version control is better than mailing files back and forth:

Nothing that is committed to version control is ever lost, unless you work really, really hard at it. Since all old versions of files are saved, it’s always possible to go back in time to see exactly who wrote what on a particular day, or what version of a program was used to generate a particular set of results.
As we have this record of who made what changes when, we know who to ask if we have questions later on, and, if needed, revert to a previous version, much like the “undo” feature in an editor.
When several people collaborate in the same project, it’s possible to accidentally overlook or overwrite someone’s changes. The version control system automatically notifies users whenever there’s a conflict between one person’s work and another’s.

Teams are not the only ones to benefit from version control: lone researchers can benefit immensely. Keeping a record of what was changed, when, and why is extremely useful for all researchers if they ever need to come back to the project later on (e.g., a year later, when memory has faded).

Version control is the lab notebook of the digital world: it’s what professionals use to keep track of what they’ve done and to collaborate with other people. Every large software development project relies on it, and most programmers use it for their small jobs as well. And it isn’t just for software: books, papers, small data sets, and anything that changes over time or needs to be shared can and should be stored in a version control system.

Prerequisites

In this lesson we use Git from the Unix Shell. Some previous experience with the shell is expected, but isn’t mandatory.

Post-Workshop Survey

Please complete this survey after attending the workshop. Thank you!!!

Acknowledgment

The material for this workshop was created from the Version Control with Git curriculum developed by The Software Carpentry Foundation of The Carpentries licensed under CC-BY 4.0