Introduction to git

Version control is like an unlimited ‘undo’.

Version control also allows many people to work in parallel.

Project directories should contain a single self-contained unit of work

Clear and logical organisation and naming aids understanding of the project

GitHub is a service that uses git and provides functionality to collaborate with other people

We can browse the history of the contents of repositories and see who made which changes

Use RStudio to write and run R programs.

Set up an RStudio project for each analysis you are performing.

Initializing a Git repository is simple: git init

Commits should be used to tell a story.

Git uses the .git folder to store the snapshots.

A repository can have one or multiple remotes.

A remote serves as a full backup of your work.

‘Cloning’ initialises a repository using content from somewhere else.

‘Pushing’ sends local changes to the remote.

‘Pulling’ gets remote changes onto your local machine.

A remote allows other people to collaborate with you.

Git history can be reverted without modifying it

Changes that are not committed can be deleted permanently

Once changes are committed they are safe

Sometimes, you just need to burn it all down and start again

Commit and push often to have a meaningful backup of your work

Make your commit messages meaningful