Introduction to Version Control
What is version control
What is Version Control?
The practice of tracking and managing changes to software code
- Grown to include more than just software code (e.g. documents)!
- Version control systems are software tools that help teams manage changes to materials over time.
Why do we want to use version control?
Some benefits of version control
- Enhances the project development speed by providing efficient collaboration
- Leverages the productivity, expedites product delivery, and skills of people through better communication and assistance
- Reduce possibilities of errors and conflicts
- Helps in recovery in case of any disaster or contingent situation
- Informs us about who, what, when, why changes have been made
Version control is better than…
- Including the date in a file name
- Including contributor initials in a file name
- Sharing and working on multiple versions of a file (e.g. via email)
Ways you’re already using version control
- Suite of online Google products: google docs, google sheets, etc.
- Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.
Using RStudio with version control
Version control for our workshop
- There are many different version control systems out there!
We will focus on Git and GitHub as our version control system of choice!
Git and GitHub
Git:
- Free and open-source distributed version control system
- Strong support for non-linear development
- Distributed development
GitHub:
- An online platform where we can share our code, materials, etc. online hassle-free
Getting started with GitHub
Create an account on GitHub (https://github.com) – this is free
Log in on the GitHub website
Let’s talk about some of the key details and functionality here, namely what a repository is!
Getting started with Git
Follow the instructions here, for your operating system, to install Git: https://happygitwithr.com/install-git.html
Configure Git: Part I
- Tell Git your email and username
Configure Git: Part II
Copy your Personal Access Token (PAT)
Enter password or token: Paste PAT
Connect RStudio to Git and GitHub
We’re following the directions here: https://happygitwithr.com/rstudio-git-github.html
Make a repository (repo) on GitHub
Clone the test GitHub repository to your computer via RStudio
In RStudio, start a new Project
File > New Project > Version Control > Git
- In “Repository URL”, paste the URL of your new GitHub repository
Basic Git Commands: Commit
In RStudio, open the README.md file and add the line “This is a line from RStudio”. Save your changes
Commit these changes to your local repo from RStudio:
- Click the “Git” tab in the upper right pane
- Check the “Staged” box for
README.md - Click “Commit”
- Type a message in “Commit message”, such as “Commit from RStudio”
- Click “Commit”
Basic Git Commands: Push
Click the green “Push” button to send your local changes to your GitHub repo!
Basic Git Commands: Pull
Git Pull (or Pull) is a command used to update the local version of a repo from a remote repo.
This can be a very important first step in your workflow when working in a repo with multiple people!
Another version control process
Other Git/GitHub implementations
Everything we just did through RStudio can be done from the command line (ew?)
GitHub Desktop is a wonderful and lightweight application for all of our Git/GitHub-related needs that works independent of any other application
