Today's exercise is a collection of common actions for using Git and GitHub from RStudio. The actions we will practice are:
- Fork a repository (make a copy of somebody else's repository on your own account). To do this you will need to create a GitHub account if you haven't already.
- Clone a repository (make a local copy of a GitHub repository on your computer so you can edit the files). Do to this you will need to install Git if you haven't already and make sure RStudio knows that Git exists on your system.
- Commit a change to one or more files in the repository.
- Push your changes back to GitHub. This includes setting up RStudio to talk to GitHub if you haven't already!
- Pull Request your changes back into this repository!
In order to practice using Git/GitHub, you will need a repository to work from! To get started, click the "Fork" button at the top of this page. To do this you will need to create a GitHub account if you haven't already (you'll be prompted to create one or sign in when you click "fork").
Once you have your own repository, (i.e., the address of the repository should be https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/2021-04-30_dfo-git), you will need to clone the repository to your own computer to make changes in RStudio. From RStudio, click on New Project at the top right hand of the window. You should see a screen that looks like this:
If you don't see Version Control as a third option, you probably haven't installed Git. There are excellent instructions for installing git in Chapter 4 of Happy Git With R by Jenny Bryan. You'll have to restart RStudio after installing Git and you should see the Version Control option. Click on Version Control and you should see a screen that looks like this:
Click on Git and you should see a screen that looks like this:
The Repository URL you need is located on your GitHub repository page under the green Code button. Unless you know what SSH is and have it set up on your computer already, make sure you have HTTPS selected. Click the little clipboard icon to copy the value to your clipboard.
Paste the value under Repository URL and click Create Project.
Open participants.md and follow the instructions at the top of the page. Click on the Git tab at the top right of the RStudio window. You should see a window that looks like this:
Check the boxes next to all the files and click Commit. You should have a window pop up that gives you an opportunity to add a small message. Type something in the box and click Commit.
After you have committed your change, push it back to GitHub using the green arrow in the Git pane. If your computer has already been set up to work with GitHub, you shuld see the following window:
If not, you'll see some kind of error message and you will need to set this up. There are excellent instructions on how to do this in Chapter 10 of Happy Git With R by Jenny Bryan but don't be afraid to ask for help getting this to work!
Visit your repository page on GitHub (https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/2021-05-28_dfo-git-pr) and click on participants.md. Your changes should be there!
The final step is to "pull" the changes back into this repository! To do this, visit your repository page on GitHub (https://github.com/YOUR_USER_NAME/2021-05-28_dfo-git-pr) and click on "contribute", then "Open Pull Request".
