Installing and Setting Up Git
We will use Git to work together on our shared codebase. Git is a version-control system that allows us to collaborate on code, track our changes, and merge our own changes with others'.
GitHub is a popular code repository hosting service. We will use GitHub to host our code, make pull requests, and track issues.
We'll use GitHub Desktop, an app that provides a GUI to the most common Git operations, for most of our source control needs in this lab. We'll also make sure you have a command line version of Git installed.
If you are unfamiliar with Git or GitHub, please take a moment to read Understanding the GitHub flow.
Install GitHub Desktop
Windows and macOS: Download and install GitHub Desktop.
If you're on macOS, similarly to VS Code, move the .app bundle from the downloaded zip into your "Applications" folder.
Linux: Refer to this guide (just a package install).
Once installed, click "Sign in to GitHub.com", follow the directions to sign in, and then quit the application.
Install git command line tools
If you are on Windows, whether or not you know you have Git installed at the command line, skip ahead to Install Git, as we need to make sure you have a few options set correctly in your installation.
If you're on macOS, open the terminal and enter the following command to check whether Git is installed:
git --version
If you recieve output that says something like git version 2.x.y, (where we don't really mind what x or y are), that means git is installed, and you can skip ahead to Python.
If you receive an output saying git needs developer tools, install them using the window popup.
If you receive output that indicates that git is not a recognized command, it is most likely because Git is not installed, so follow the instructions below.
Install git
Download the current installer from the Git website, and continue to the instructions below.
On Windows, make sure to pick the 64-bit version.
If you're on macOS, run the installer and skip ahead to Python.
If you're on Windows, follow the instructions below.
Launch the installer and accept the license information displayed at its start. There are a lot of installation options for git, and we're going to change some from the defaults and leave others alone. Please follow along carefully.
You will now see a screen showing several installation options. Make sure that you have all of these boxes checked.
Select VS Code or Notepad as your default editor for Git.
Use the modern defaults for branch naming.
Select the last option here, which adds the Git command line tools to your PATH for the Command Prompt.
Use the bundled OpenSSH (default).
Use the OpenSSL Library (default).
Select the following line ending conversions.
After this step, you should select the default terminal emulator that Git Bash uses. Please ensure that you are using MinTTY.
Default (fast-forward or merge)
Use Git Credential Manager (default).
The following step should be left with default values.
Up to you. Here are the Lab's settings.
Run the installer, and then move on to installing Python.
← Intro Python →