What Git and GitHub are
Saving your work, the professional way
Ever had files like essay-final.docx, essay-final-v2.docx and essay-FINAL-really.docx? Developers had the same problem — with thousands of files and dozens of people. Their solution is version control.
| Git | GitHub | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A free program on your computer | A website (github.com) |
| What it does | Saves snapshots of your project, so you can see history and go back | Stores copies of your projects online, so you can share them and work with others |
| Works offline? | Yes | No |
Think of Git as the save system of a video game — every save point is kept, with a note about what happened. GitHub is like a shared online drive for those saves, with tools for teams.
Words you'll use
| Word | Means |
|---|---|
| Repository (repo) | A project folder that Git is tracking |
| Commit | A saved snapshot, with a message about what changed |
| Branch | A separate line of work, for trying things safely |
| Push / pull | Send your commits to GitHub / get new commits from GitHub |
| Pull request | Asking for your changes to be reviewed and added to the main project |
Not just for coders
Git works best with text files: code, websites, notes and documentation. Writers, scientists and data analysts use it too. (Word and Excel files can be stored, but Git can't show what changed inside them.)
Try it
Visit github.com/explore and look at a few popular projects. Click Commits on one — that's the history of every change, by everyone.
Downloads
1 file to download once you enrol.