GitHub Ultimate: Master Git and GitHub - Beginner to Expert

The Introduction provides a welcome to the course including some useful tips for getting the most out of taking the course and how the course is designed. That is followed by the Core Concepts which go over some critical theory before diving straight into Git.

After the introduction and core concepts, the first thing we do is a Quick Installation for both Windows and Mac. The Bonus section has a more comprehensive, step-by-step process for those that prefer it.

Learning Git Source Control

In The Basics, we walk through all the foundational commands needed to start a new project managed by Git (or enable Git for an existing project) all the way through making commits, including common file operations like moving and deleting files. We also cover how to exclude the wrong files from accidentally being committed and how to review your repository’s history.

With a strong foundation in place, we explore some more Advanced Git topics like comparing differences, branching and merge resolution, tagging special events, saving work in progress, and even a bit of time travel.

All About GitHub

The main part of this course is all about GitHub. We will explore GitHub indepth from a source control hosting repository perspective.

In Welcome to GitHub we start off exploring some of the basic features of GitHub by creating a fresh repository and associate our local repository with it. Then, we prepare for the remainder of the course by setting up SSH Authentication, which we will use from this point forward. After that, we continue looking at the GitHub Repository, including many of the same operations we performed locally, but done directly within GitHub. Then in GitHub Repository Branches we dive into how Branches on GitHub and our local system work with each other.

After we have comprehensively covered how GitHub repositories work, we focus on how GitHub Tags and Releases work and their relationship with local tags in Git. We can then use tags/releases while Comparing Differences on GitHub.

We start tying things together in Social Coding where we join other projects on GitHub by forking and then submitting our contributions back using pull requests.

Once part of a team, you might use GitHub Issues to track defects or enhancement requests.

Sometimes you just need to share small parts of a file or a set of files, but don’t want to bother with a full Git repository. That where GitHub Gists help out — share just a snip of code or entire files.

Finally, group related GitHub repositories with GitHub Organizations and manage permissions and access using teams.

The course’s sections are broken down into four separate units:

• Git Essentials

• Next Level Git

• Github & Collaboration

• The Tricky Bits

We start off with Git Essentials.  The goal of this unit is to give you all the essential Git tools you need for daily use.  We start off talking about version control software, what it is, why it matters, and the history of Git.  Then we install Git and run through the Unix commands you’ll need to work with Git (you can skip this if you’re already familiar).  The bulk of this unit is focused on teaching the core Git mechanics like committing and branching and the associated concepts: the working directory, the repository, the staging area, etc.    We cover Git commands including: git init, git add, git commit, git status, git log, git branch, and git merge.  We end with a detailed look at branching, merging, and resolving conflicts.

Then we move on to out Next Level Git unit, where we cover additional commands and Git concepts that are extremely useful, but maybe not as “core” as the Git Essentials.  We start with a comprehensive look at the git diff command and the various comparisons that we can make between commits, branches, the working directory, the staging area, and more!  We pay special attention to reading and parsing the dense output generated by diffs.  Then we shift our focus to stashing with the git stash command, a “convenience command” that many users love incorporating into their Git workflow.  Finally, we dive deep into undoing changes and time traveling with Git.  We learn how to revisit earlier work, detach and re-attach HEAD, and discard changes.  We cover git commands that help us undo changes including git checkout, git restore, git reset, and git revert.

Next up, we change gears to focus on Github & Collaboration.  We start by exploring Github (and similar tools) that host remote repositories and discussing the benefits they provide.  We create our own Github repositories and sync up changes between our remote and local repositories using the git push, git pull, and git fetch commands.  We then focus on commonly used collaboration workflows that students may encounter in the real world: feature branching, pull requests, forking & cloning, and more! We discuss contributing to open source projects and configuring Github repositories for collaboration. We also spend some time learning about useful Github features including Github Gists and Github Pages for free static hosting.

The last unit in the course, The Tricky Bits, is really just a collection of useful Git command and advanced topics.  We start by covering one of the “scarier” Git commands: rebasing!  We discuss the potential benefits and pitfalls of rebasing and compare it to merging.  Then we learn how to clean up our Git history by rewording, editing, dropping, and squashing commits using the interactive rebase command.  Next, we discuss Git tags (lightweight and annotated tags) semantic versioning and tagging workflows.  After that, we move on to a deep dive into the inner workings of Git.  We discuss the files and folders Git uses internally, the role of hashing functions in Git, and the role of Git objects (blobs, trees, etc.). Next, we talk about reference logs and the git reflog command.  Specifically, we learn how we can use reflogs to rescue “lost” commits and undo rebases.  Finally, we learn how to write custom and powerful Git aliases!

Throughout the course, you’ll find tons and tons of diagrams and visual references I’ve created to try and explain Git.  The course also includes exercises I’ve tested on my in-person students, to give you an opportunity to practice the concepts in the course along the way.  If you are reading this sentence, I congratulate you on making it this far 🙂 I hope you enjoy the course!

Course Features

All tools have installation and configuration sections to ensure no one is left behind.

Several attachments and document lectures throughout the course provide supplemental information, illustrations, or other reference material.

Moving Forward

This course will expand periodically to include more topics, supporting materials and bonus content! Some content may be in direct response to student feedback or discussions — so get engaged with the course discussions feature!