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🧠 Git and GitHub Tutorial – The Complete Beginner to Advanced Guide

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🔰 Introduction to Git and GitHub

📌 What is Git?

Git is a free, open-source distributed version control system developed by Linus Torvalds in 2005. It’s widely used to track changes in code and collaborate on software projects.

💡 Why Git Was Created

Git was designed to efficiently and securely manage contributions to large codebases (e.g., the Linux kernel) in a decentralized way.

✨ Key Features

• Distributed system
• Fast performance
• Branching and merging
• Data integrity with SHA-1
• Offline support

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📌 What is GitHub?

GitHub is a cloud-based platform built on top of Git, offering additional collaboration tools like pull requests, issue tracking, project boards, and CI/CD workflows.

🔍 Git vs GitHub – Key Differences

Feature	Git	GitHub
Type	Version Control System (VCS)	Repository Hosting Platform
Mode	Local + CLI	Web UI + Remote Collaboration
Tools	Core VCS Commands	Pull Requests, Issues, Teams

🔥 GitHub Features

• Repositories & project hosting
• Pull requests for collaboration
• GitHub Actions (CI/CD)
• Issues, wikis, and team management

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🧰 Installing Git

💻 Windows

1. Download from git-scm.com
2. Run the installer and follow defaults
3. Verify: git --version

🍎 macOS

brew install git

Or:

xcode-select --install

🐧 Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git

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⚙️ Basic Git Configuration

👤 Set Username & Email

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

🧾 Check Config

git config --list

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📂 Git Basics

📁 Creating a Repository

git init

🔄 Git Workflow Overview

1. Working Directory – where files are edited
2. Staging Area – add files using git add
3. Repository – commit changes with git commit

➕ Staging & Committing

git add filename
git commit -m "Initial commit"

📜 Viewing Commit History

git log

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🌿 Working with Branches

📌 What is a Branch?

A branch allows parallel development without affecting the main codebase.

🌱 Create & Switch Branch

git checkout -b feature-login

🔀 Merge Branch

git checkout main
git merge feature-login

🗑️ Delete Branch

git branch -d feature-login

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🌍 Remote Repositories

📥 Clone a Repo

git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git

➕ Add a Remote

git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git

📤 Push Changes

git push -u origin main

🔄 Pull Changes

git pull origin main

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🚀 GitHub Essentials

📝 Create GitHub Account

Sign up at github.com

📦 Create New Repository

• Click New
• Name your repo
• Choose visibility (public/private)

☁️ Push Local Repo

git remote add origin https://github.com/username/repo.git
git push -u origin main

🌟 Fork & Star Repositories

• Star: Bookmark useful projects
• Fork: Create your own copy

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👥 Collaborating with Others

📨 Pull Requests

Propose changes to a repo.

🔍 Reviewing & Merging PRs

• View code changes
• Add comments
• Click Merge pull request

🔧 Resolve Merge Conflicts

Edit the conflict areas, then:

git add .
git commit

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🚫 Git Ignore & .gitignore

🙅 What is .gitignore?

A file that tells Git to ignore specific files/folders.

📃 Example Entries

node_modules/
.env
*.log

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🏷️ Git Tags & Releases

🔖 Create Tag

git tag v1.0

📌 Annotated vs Lightweight

• Annotated: Includes metadata
• Lightweight: Just a reference

📤 Push Tag to GitHub

git push origin v1.0

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⏪ Undoing Changes

📍 Git Reset

git reset --hard HEAD~1

↩️ Git Revert

git revert <commit-id>

🔙 Git Checkout (Restore File)

git checkout -- filename.txt

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⚙️ GitHub Actions (Intro)

🤖 What Are GitHub Actions?

CI/CD automation built into GitHub.

🧪 Example Workflow

name: CI
on: [push]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - run: echo "Hello GitHub Actions!"

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✅ Best Practices

📝 Commit Message Guidelines

• Use imperative mood: Add, Fix, Update
• Keep it short and meaningful

🌲 Branch Naming Conventions

• feature/login-form
• bugfix/navbar-glitch

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🖥️ Git GUI Clients

🟦 GitHub Desktop

Beginner-friendly Git client by GitHub.

🌀 SourceTree

Powerful GUI by Atlassian for Git & Mercurial.

🐙 GitKraken

Modern Git client with a beautiful interface.

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🔚 Final Thoughts

Git and GitHub empower developers to collaborate, version-control, and ship quality code faster. Whether you’re building solo or as a team, mastering these tools is essential in today’s development world.

Practice. Collaborate. Push code. Repeat.

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