Content was forked and from Mark Mandel/mjmlab. A lot of content was removed to streamline, but it’s not a bad idea to review it when we become more Git-competent.

Cloning and contributing to a lab Git repo on GitHub: lowepowerlab/protocols as an example

This is a bit meta: a protocol to demonstrate how to contribute to the protocols. It also serves as a model for working with other lab repositories.

• What is a repository/repo?
• Git vs Github
• Git and GitHub Setup and Basic Commands
  • GitHub signup
  • Play with GitHub
  • Set Up a Text Editor on your computer
  • Install Git on your computer
  • Modify a lab protocol

What is a repository/repo?

A repository (repo) in a directory or folder in which Git is tracking changes. It is an effective method for version control and to collaborate on code and documents.

Git vs Github

Git is the language that facilitates the change tracking and merging. GitHub is a git server and associated website that facilitates collaboration and posting online.

Git and GitHub Setup and Basic Commands

You can use Git on your own computer without the need for GitHub. However, since GitHub is a pretty and easy-to-use interface we will start there and then move to the command line Git interface on our computer.

GitHub signup

1. Sign up for a GitHub account.
2. Sign up for the GitHub educational discount.
   • This will allow you to have private repos at no cost.
3. Email Tiffany with your GitHub username so you can be invited to the lab GitHub group.

Play with GitHub

See additional resources below to complete the following steps:

1. Look at the Markdown language, including the syntax particular for GitHub, aptly called GitHub-flavored Markdown. The syntax is fairly simple, and this is widely used in GitHub documents, including our protocols.
2. Create a repo in your account via the web interface.
3. Make a change to the repo. This is called a “commit”.
4. View the commit history of your repo.

Set Up a Text Editor on your computer

Recommendation is Visual Studio Code

1. Download VS Code.
2. Install VS Code (or move to Applications folder on Mac).
3. Install Visual Studio code extensions like Code Spell Checker, Excel Viewer, GitHub Pull Requests, Markdown Table Formatter, Python (helps check your code), etc.

Install Git on your computer

1. On Mac, type git config on the command line (e.g., Terminal app) and if it is not installed you will be prompted to install the XCode command line tools, which includes Git.
2. Here is information for other platforms and more detailed information for Mac.

Modify a lab protocol

Option 1: Follow the instructions on Mark Mandel’s Tutorial.

Option 2: If you want to frequently write & edit protocols, you can clone the protocols repository into VS Code & push changes to the master from your computer/account.

• Open VS Code
• Ctrl+Shift+P to open the search commands dialog. Type “clone”, hit enter.
• Clone the lab protocols github https://github.com/lowepowerlab/protocols. This will let you choose a local folder on your computer to view the lab protocols from.
• Open the protocols repo in VS Code.
• Edit a Markdown or other file (.md are markdown files)
• Save the Changes locally
• To commit to your git account, Open Source Control Menu (left). Add an informative description of the changes to the “Message”, such as “Fixed typos”, “Improved clarity”, “wrote protocol XXX”. Then commit by clicking the checkmark. Verify your changes have registered on the master
• Currently… Tiffany’s computer is configured such that commiting in VS Code doesn’t push to the master. Tiffany uses the GitHub Desktop program to push & pull commits from the master.