Git Intro for Librarians: Reference

Key Points

What is Git/GitHub?	Git and Github are not the same
Getting started with git	git repositories are data-structures used to track changes to files over time Git uses a two-stage commit process. Changes must first be added to the staging area, then committed from there
Sharing your work	remote repositories on GitHub help you collaborate push is a Git verb for sending changes from the local repository to a remote repository pull is a Git verb for bringing changes from a remote repository to the local repository
Review	the workflow isn’t tricky, but it the language takes some time to settle in
Github Pages	GitHub Pages use the Git/GitHub workflow to help you build webpages

Quick reference

Basics - navigating the shell

pwd

print working directory

ls

list directory :

• -l: list file information

• -lh: list human readable file information

cd

change directory

Basics - interacting with files

mkdir

make directory

cat

send file or files to output (in most cases, print to shell)

head

output first parts of a file or files

tail

output last parts of a file or files

mv

rename or move a file or files. Syntax for renaming a file: mv FILENAME NEWFILENAME

cp

copy a file or files. Syntax: cp FILENAME NEWFILENAME

>

redirect output. Syntax with cat: cat FILENAME1 FILENAME2 > NEWFILENAME

rm

remove a file or files. NB: USE WITH CAUTION!!!

Basic Git commands

Git cheat sheet handouts:

• https://training.github.com/kit/downloads/github-git-cheat-sheet.pdf
• http://www.git-tower.com/blog/git-cheat-sheet/

git init

creates a git repository

git status

view the status of your files in the working directory and staging area

git add

tells git to start tracking a file, or a series of files.

git commit

commits ‘saves’ the staged snapshot to the project history.

git push

commits the staged snapshot to the project history.

git log

history of commits in reverse chronological order.

git diff

shows changes made to files

git pull

Merges upstream changes into your local repository

git remote add origin

add a repository where changes will be stored -

Useful library github repositories

• DavidChouinard/mrc_to_csv: ‘Python script for converting MARC21 files to a saner format (CSV), originally designed for the Harvard Libraries MARC21 records’
• Process MARC records from Python
  • http://python.org/pypi/pymarc
• edsu/git-intro: high level intro to git
• edsu/mirador
• edsu/microdata
• kcl/ddh
• dhtaxonomy/TaDiRAH
• OpenAPC/openapc-de
• JiscMonitor/allapc
• http://fbkarsdorp.github.io/python-course/
• https://galencharlton.com/blog/2008/03/code4lib-2008-lightning-talk-git-and-distributed-cataloging/
• http://book.openingscience.org/

Further reading

• The help pages of github are a good place to start: https://help.github.com/
• Github has ‘activities’ which aim to explain how git works: https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/
• Some indepth but clear tutorials on using git. https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials
• A website aimed at historians but useful for librarians/those interested in Digital Humanities. The project uses Github and a programme called Jekyll to manage new lessons/the website. A useful place to see a non coding use of github in action: http://programminghistorian.org