version-control-hosting.rst

Version control and distributed software development

Version control

What is it?

• Keeping track of changes in files, manage how changes are combined
• Important terms: repository, branches, commit, merge

More detail: - branch naming 'conventions': main, develop, ...

Why is it important?

• Work on multiple things/with multiple people
• Track who did what, when did things break, undo things

How is it done?

git - but also mercurial

Quick summary cheatsheet: init, branch, checkout

add, commit, reset

Hosting a repository

GitHub is suggested for MDAKits, since you'll need a GitHub account to register a Kit, but not required.

What is it?

• Putting repositories where they can be accessed online
• Important terms: local vs remote, origin/upstream/fork/clone; pull requests+review
• Highlight: Git vs. GitHub

Why is it important?

• better sharability/accessibiltiy of the above
• can provide lots of ways to add/automate lots of things! e.g. see GitHub below

How is it done?

GitHub - but also GitLab, BitBucket

Quick summary cheatsheet: clone, push, pull Link to where we describe fork+clone+push+PR in examples?

Overview of things you can do with GitHub

(gather links to relevant sections)

• Issues + Pull Requests (and can have templates for these)
• GitHub discussion
• git tags + releases
• GitHub actions: codecov, tests/CI, linters, ...
• documentation: readmes, tie into readthedocs, githubpages