Introduction

Generally, a software product is developed in collaboration by a group of developers, where each person is responsible for certain functionality of the product.

Everyone modifies the source code accordingly. However, what if certain changes in the code result in a particular bug in the product? So, there must be a way to track the cause of the problem and seamlessly restore the state of the product to an earlier version that works correctly.

There are two types of version control systems, which are centralized version control systems (CVCS) and distributed version control systems (DVCS). You can revisit these concepts by accessing the video Systems of version control and tools from the Version Control course to explore them in more detail.

For the purposes of this project, you'll be using the popular distributed version control system known as Git.

Git

Git is a free and open-source software designed to manage all source code history.  You can keep a history of commits, revert to previous versions, and share code. To refresh your knowledge when working with Git, refer to the lesson Working with Git from the Version Control course.

At this stage you should already have Git installed on your machine, but if you still need to download it you can find it at this link and follow the steps below to set it up:

• Open the terminal on your machine

• Create a new folder with a text file inside it

• Initialize a local repository for the project by running the git init command.

• Add the project files to the folder and check the status.

• Add the files to the staging area of the repository.

Note: You need to Configure the repository with relevant credentials before committing to a local repository.

• Finally, commit the files that have been added to the staging area. Including a message in the Git Commit command is mandatory.

For more details, refer to the video Add and Commit from Module 3, Lesson 1 of the course Version Control .

Now, let’s move onto GitHub.

GitHub

Git repositories are usually stored on GitHub. It has Source Control Management (SCM) features of Git with other features such as project management, support ticket management, and bug tracking.

Developers use GitHub to share their repositories, access other developers' repositories, and store remote copies of repositories to serve as backups.

If necessary, sign up to GitHub and create a new repository. You can refer to the reading item Create your GitHub account from Module 3, Lesson 1 of the course Version Control for more detailed information.

Now, go back to the Git terminal and push the local repository to the GitHub repository.

Conclusion

In this reading, you learned what version control and Git is. You also learned how to create and push a local repository on GitHub.