Master GitHub: From Account Setup to Contributing to Open Source Projects

Outline

GitHub Introduction

Register GitHub Account

Configure GitHub

Use GitHub

Participate in other open source projects

Note: GitHub official site: https://github.com/, client version: git version x.x.x.msysgit.0. All software can be downloaded from http://msysgit.github.io/.

1. GitHub Introduction

GitHub can host various Git repositories and provides a web interface. Unlike services such as SourceForge or Google Code, GitHub’s unique selling point is the ease of branching from another project.

Contributing code to a project is simple: click the “fork” button on the project page, check out the code, make changes, and then use the built‑in “pull request” mechanism to request merging.

GitHub has been called the MySpace of code developers and is primarily implemented with Rails. The following sections will explain how to use GitHub in detail.

2. Register GitHub Account

1. First, register a GitHub account (see screenshots).

2. Registration process steps (see screenshots).

3. Enter username, email, password and click create.

4. Fill in the information and proceed.

5. Provide some organization information and continue.

Click “Finish” to complete the account registration. Then create a new repository (see screenshot).

6. Click “New repository” on the right side.

7. Fill in repository name, description, and check “Initialize repository with README”.

Now the first repository is created; next, clone it locally.

3. Configure GitHub

1. Before cloning, generate an SSH public key and add it to GitHub for password‑less login.

2. Copy the generated public key to GitHub.

3. Click “Add ssh key”.

4. Click “Add key”.

Configuration is complete; now you can use GitHub.

4. Use GitHub

1. Clone the repository.

2. Create a new page and push it to the remote repository.

3. View the changes on GitHub.

Now you can work with GitHub.

5. Participate in Other Open Source Projects

GitHub serves as a free remote repository; you can also pay to support open‑source projects.

If it’s your own open‑source project, hosting it on GitHub is perfectly fine.

GitHub is a collaborative community where you can let others contribute to your project or you can contribute to others.

To participate in a popular project like jQuery, visit its page at https://github.com/jquery/jquery, click “Fork” to clone it under your account, then clone it locally.

2. Click the “fork” button (see screenshot).

3. Clone the forked repository to your local machine (see screenshot).

Cloning may take some time due to many files; be patient.

Ensure you clone from your own fork; otherwise you won’t have push rights.

If you clone directly from the original repository (e.g., [email protected]:jquery/jquery.git), you cannot push changes.

After fixing a bug or adding a feature, push to your fork and optionally open a pull request to the original repository.

Whether the maintainers accept your pull request is uncertain.