Welcome to our GitHub! If you're new to working with GitHub, this repo serves as a tour guide for you to gain familiarity with cloning and pushing to code repositories as well as general GitHub best practices
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Repository aka a repo, is the root folder in which the project is contained.
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Remote repository refers to the repository hosted on the GitHub platform.
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Local Repository refers to the copy of the repo stored on your local computer, in your file system.
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Cloning a repository refers to copying a remote repository to your computer, allowing you to access/edit files locally and commit changes. See below a tutorial on cloning a repository.
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Commiting/pushing to a repository refers to the act of committing your local file changes to the remote repo on GitHub. See below a tutorial on cloning a repository.
Below are a list of prerequisites you need in order to start contributing to repositories on our account. Each bullet point has a linked tutorial.
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A GitHub account
We push to GitHub via a Secure Shell, to setup your account's SSH key follow the below tutorials: -
Git Bash (a terminal to run git commands)
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https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent -https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/connecting-to-github-with-ssh/adding-a-new-ssh-key-to-your-github-account
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A terminal that supports git
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A code Editor of your choice
If you're starting a new project that doesn't yet have a repo setup, follow the below steps. If you want to contribute to an existing repo on our organization's account, skip to the Cloning a Repository tutorial.
Including detailed documentation for all your projects is a highly recommended best practice. It serves as a blueprint for future researchers and contributors to use to navigate and understand your file structure and your code. On GitHub, we use markdown files (with the .md extension, you're reading one right now!) to write documentation. See the markdown syntax cheat-sheet to get started with formatting markdowns. You can include as many md files as you need in any folders within the repository, however the README.md in the root repository should serve as an intro to the repo, as it is displayed on the repo's main page on GitHub.
Now that you have a local copy of the repo on your machine, you can begin uploading, modifying, and deleting files in it.
Depending on the access you've been granted to a repository, there are different ways to contribute (i.e. push your local changes) to a repo.