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Add The Project To A Git Repo

Goals

  • Create a local git repository

  • Add all our files to the git repository

    • In order to publish our application, we need to add our application and any changes we make over time to a "revision control system". In our case we're going to use git because it is (relatively) easy and it is what our app server, Heroku, uses.

Steps

Step 1

Let's set up Git, a way to track the code that you write tomorrow.

Type this, but with your full name in the quotes:

Terminal
git config --global user.name "First Name Last Name"

The --global option tells Git to set your name system-wide, instead of in only one place.

Now let's tell Git what your email is.

Type the following, replacing the email with your email in the quotes:

Terminal
git config --global user.email "your_name@your_email.com"

Step 2

Type this in the terminal:

Terminal
git init

You'll get a message like this:

Initialized empty Git repository in /vagrant/railsbridge/suggestotron/.git/

It doesn't look like anything really happened, but git init created (or initialized) a Git repository in a hidden directory called .git. You can see the .git directory by typing ls -a to list all files.

Step 3

Type this in the terminal:

Terminal
git status

git status tells you everything git sees as modified, new, or missing.

The first time you run this, you should see a ton of stuff.

The second time you run this, you shouldn't see much of anything.

Step 4

Type this in the terminal:

Terminal
git add .

git add . tells git that you want to add the current directory (referred to as .) and everything under it to the repo.

git add

With Git, there are usually many ways to do very similar things.

  • git add foo.txt adds a file named foo.txt
  • git add . adds all new files and changed files, but doesn't touch files that you've deleted
  • git add -A adds everything, including deletions

"Adding deletions" may sound weird, but if you think of a version control system as keeping track of changes, it might make more sense. Most people use git add . but git add -A can be safer. No matter what, git status is your friend.

Step 5

Type this in the terminal:

Terminal
git commit -m "Added a brand-new Rails app"

git commit tells git to actually do all things you've said you wanted to do.

This is done in two steps so you can group multiple changes together.

-m "Added a brand-new Rails app" is just a shortcut to say what your commit message is. If you skip that part git will bring up an editor to fill out a more detailed message.

Explanation

By checking your application into git now, you're creating a record of this as your starting point. Whenever you make a change after today's workshop, add it to git. This way, if anything ever breaks, or you make a change you don't like, you can use git as an all-powerful "undo" technique. But that only works when you remember to commit early and often!

Next Step:

Go on to Deploying To Heroku