To check which branch you are currently on, use:
git branch
It should say:
* main
To create a new branch and switch into that branch at the same time, use:
git checkout -b my-new-branch
You should see:
Switched to a new branch 'my-new-branch'
This new branch will be an exact copy of the branch you were on when you called the command, which in this case is main.
Edit question.txt to answer the question. Also create a file called random.txt inside your repo (in the same folder as question.txt), but feel free to leave it empty.
You will need to add the file to git's tracking before making a commit, so first view the current changes with:
git status
You should see that you have an untracked file:
On branch my-new-branch
Changes not staged for commit:
(use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
(use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
modified: question.txt
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
random.txt
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
Add the file with: git add random.txt question.txt
Check the status again with git status and see that it no longer shows an untracked file. You should see:
On branch my-new-branch
Changes to be committed:
(use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
new file: random.txt
modified: question.txt
Then you can make a commit and add a commit message:
git commit -m "answer to the question, added random file"
The -m option allows you to write a message labeling the commit. Ideally, your commit message is descriptive about what changed in this commit compared to the previous one. However, it should also be short (just a few words).
You should see something like:
[my-new-branch 7286f7f] new question, added random file
2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 random.txt
Push your committed changes from your local machine to the remote GitHub repo, where others can see it or clone it, use:
git push origin my-new-branch
Goto GitHub UI and check your commits.
Lets try to add more commits to branch.
Edit question.txt to ask an additional question (Ex. "What is your favorite animal and why?").
Check git status and Add question.txt.
Use git commit -m "<commit-message>" to commit the changes to git.
similarly Edit question.txt to answer the additional question (Ex. "What is your favorite animal and why?").
Check git status and Add question.txt.
Use git commit -m "<commit-message>" to commit the changes to git.
Now, Use git log to check all the commits in the branch.
As we see there are 3 additional commits in the git history. we would use rebase squash to squash 3 commits into 1 commit.
git rebase -i HEAD~3
or
git rebase -i <commit id of commit picked>
A nano or vi editor would be opened, with list of commits.
Pick the first commit and squash the rest of it.
Save it.
choose the commit message for the squashed commit.
Now, Use git log to check the commits in the git history again.
Push your committed changes from your local machine to the remote GitHub repo, where others can see it or clone it, use:
git push origin my-new-branch
Then you should see:
To github.com:harshad16/myawesomerepo.git
! [rejected] master -> master (non-fast-forward)
error: failed to push some refs to 'git@github.com:harshad16/myawesomerepo.git'
hint: Updates were rejected because the tip of your current branch is behind
hint: its remote counterpart. Integrate the remote changes (e.g.
hint: 'git pull ...') before pushing again.
hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.
As the git history has been changed in the remote and local system. so we would have to force push it.
git push -f origin my-new-branch
List the files in your directory while you're on my-new-branch with:
ls
What do you see?
You should see your new file, random.txt, as well as the older file, question.txt.
Now view all your branches with:
git branch
This should show you both branches, with the current one highlighted and with an asterisk (the order in which they are listed doesn't matter):
main
* my-new-branch
To back to the main branch, use:
git checkout main.
Now that you are on the original main branch, use ls again to list the files in your repo. What is different from the last time you looked at the contents of this folder?
You should see that random.txt has disappeared! This is expected; this file was only added in my-new-branch and does not show up in other branches. If you switch back to my-new-branch using git checkout my-new-branch and enter ls, you will see the file again.
To check that you're on the main branch, use:
git branch
You should see:
* main
my-new-branch
Then, to merge changes from my-new-branch into your current branch (main), use:
git merge my-new-branch
You should see:
Updating 680c198..7286f7f
Fast-forward
question.txt | 2 ++
random.txt | 0
2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 random.txt
Use ls again to see your files. You should see that now random.txt shows up in the main branch. By merging my-new-branch into the main branch, you have brought the changes from my-new-branch into main.
Push your original main branch to remote.
Make sure you are on the main branch with:
git branch
You should see:
* main
my-new-branch
If you don't see this, you can switch to the main branch by using:
git checkout main
Check that you have no untracked files with:
git status
You should see:
On branch main
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/main' by 1 commit.
(use "git push" to publish your local commits)
nothing to commit, working tree clean
Push the new changes to remote with: git push origin main
You should see:
Enumerating objects: 6, done.
Counting objects: 100% (6/6), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Writing objects: 100% (4/4), 403 bytes | 403.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 4 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To github.com:<gitusername>/<repo>.git
680c198..7286f7f main -> main
You can check that your changes made it to remote by looking on your GitHub profile in the repo you created.
If you have extra time, delete your new branch to clean up. Make sure you are on the main branch with git branch (or change to master with git checkout main) because you cannot delete a branch you're currently on. Then delete the other branch with git branch -d my-new-branch. Check that the delete worked by using git branch to list all local branches.