GitHub Review

Further details on GitHub and Anaconda

Danilo Freire

Department of Quantitative Theory and Methods
Emory University

04 September, 2024

Lecture Overview

Understand the difference between cloning and forking a repository
Learn how to remove cloned repos
Understand the GitHub workflow: change, commit, push, fetch, pull
Learn how to keep a forked repository updated
Understand what a virtual environment in Anaconda is and how to create one if needed

First, please remember to create a GitHub account if you do not have one yet: https://education.github.com/pack. Use your Emory email address to get the GitHub Student Developer Pack for free. Then install the following software:
Anaconda (Python distribution)
GitHub Desktop (Git user interface)
Visual Studio Code (Code editor)
Please check the tutorials on the course repository: https://github.com/danilofreire/qtm151/tutorials. They will help you with the installation and setup of the software.
You can also get help from Student Tech Support
If you have any questions, please let us know!

Access: download a remote GitHub repository to your local computer to work on it
Edit: make local changes to the repository and update them to the cloud

There are two ways to access a repository:

Makes a local copy of a repository
Think of it as downloading a repository onto your local computer
Unlike forks, clones reference the original repository: you cannot push changes to it unless you have permissions from the owner
If you do have permissions, you can overwrite the content of the remote repository

Example repo: https://github.com/danilofreire/qtm151-example-repository
We can clone the repo using GitHub desktop
- It does not create a remote copy of the repo in my GitHub page
If the users cloning the repo have write access they can replace files and folders in the remote GitHub repo
The purpose of cloning is often to contribute directly to the original repo or work offline

Creates your own copy of a repository in your remote GitHub page
Your own copy means that you will be able to contribute changes to your copy of the repository without affecting the original repository!
Often used to create a personal version of a project for custom modifications
- You can then submit a pull request to the original repository to suggest changes

Example repo: https://github.com/danilofreire/qtm151-example-repository
We can fork the repo using the GitHub page
- It creates a remote copy of the repo on your GitHub
- You can then clone the repo to your local computer and work on it
- You can push changes to your remote repo
- See the GitHub Tutorial for more details

Feature	Cloning	Forking
Local Copy	Yes	No (initially only on GitHub)
Direct Collaboration	Yes (if permissions allow)	No (requires pull requests)
Synchronisation	Yes (with the original repository)	Yes (can fetch updates from the original)
Control	Limited (depends on permissions)	Full (over the forked copy)
Use Case	Contributing directly, local development	Independent development, contributing via PRs
Includes	All files, branches, commit history	All files, commit history, but no issues or PRs

If you cloned or forked a repository and no longer need it, you can delete the local copy
Deleting the local copy does not affect the remote repository
You can also delete the remote repository if you have write access to it (be careful!)