Category: GitHub

Pushing a Local Project to GitHub
As I’ve been delving deeper into JavaScript, I’ve found myself starting local projects, wanting to get into the habit of making my commits and pushing them to GitHub. So, you’ve created a folder for your little project; now how do you get it onto GitHub?
Table of Contents
Initializing the Local Repo in Git

Once you’ve created your project’s folder, you’ll then want to open Terminal and CD into the folder. Now you’ll initialize the repo in Git with the following command:
```
git init -b main
```
At this this time, you can then create a file new file called .gitignore in TextEdit on a macOS, or nano/vim/vi in Terminal. This file allows you to specify various files, folders, or filetypes to ignore when adding files and making commits. Here is an example of what you can put in you .gitignore file:
```
# Ignore Mac system files
.DS_store

# Ignore all zip files
*.zip

# Ignore tmp folder
/tmp
```
Now you can add all files in the local project folder to git with the following command:
```
git add .
```
The first commit can bow be made by running:
```
git commit -m “The first commit”
```
Creating the GitHub Repository

We’re not ready to create the repository on GitHub that will be used to push the local commits to.

GitHub repository creation

Once that has been created, you’ll then want to get the SSH link to your repository. This can be done by navigating to your newly created repository on GitHub, then clicking the green Code button, choosing the SSH option, and clicking the copy button.

SSH link

The HTTPS link will work just fine, however, it will prompt you for your login/password every time you make changes. If you have have your SSH public key set up as described in this article, then you’ll want to use the SSH link.

Pushing the Project to GitHub

The next step will be to add the URL for the remote repository, which is where you want the files to be pushed to on GitHub. This can be done by running, and pasting the SSH link we copied from above.
```
git remote add origin <SSHLink>
```
You can verify the URL by then entering:
```
git remote -v
```
The final step will be to push the local files to your GitHub repository by running:
```
git push -u origin main
```
If you’ve selected the option to create a README when creating your repository on GitHub, then you may see this message:
```
 ! [rejected]        main -> main (fetch first)
error: failed to push some refs to 'github.com:villanovachile/my-new-repository.git'
hint: Updates were rejected because the remote contains work that you do
hint: not have locally. This is usually caused by another repository pushing
hint: to the same ref. You may want to first integrate the remote changes
hint: (e.g., 'git pull ...') before pushing again.
hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.
```
This essentially means that since there is a file in the remote repository that is not present in the local repository, you must first make a pull by running:
```
git pull origin main
```
If you see the error fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories then you can can add the --allow-unrelated-histories tag such as:
```
git pull origin main --allow-unrelated-histories
```
You should now see any existing files from GitHub in your local repo folder, and you can run the following push command again:
```
git push -u origin main
```
You should now be able to refresh your GitHub repository and see your local files!
March 26, 2022
Setting Up Git & Connecting to GitHub on macOS
One of the first things we learn as part of our journey into JavaScript with The Odin Project is setting up Git and connecting to GitHub. As I’m sure many others do, I find myself working on multiple devices, and continuously referring back to The Odin Project modules to recall the steps and terminal commands.

I figured this would be a good place to make a quick guide that I can conveniently refer to when needed.
Table of Contents
1. Prerequisites

First you will need to install Homebrew. The instructions for that can be found here.

Once all the dependents Homebrew has been installed, you can install Homebrew with the following command:
```
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
```
2. Installing & Configuring git

Although macOS comes with Git preinstalled, you can update Git by running the following command:
```
brew install git
```
Next we need to configure Git to match the information on your GitHub account. This can be done by running the following commands:
```
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
```
You can verify the config above by running:
```
git config --get user.name
git config --get user.email
```
You can then set the default branch to Main (recently standardized) by running:
```
git config --global init.defaultBranch main
```
3. Connecting Git to GitHub with a SSH Public Key

We are now ready to create a public SSH key and connect Git to your GitHub.com account!

First, create a Git SSH key by running the following command (It’s important that your email matches your GitHub email.):
```
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C <youremail>
```
Once that has been done, you can then copy the SSH public key to your clipboard by running:
```
pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
```
Now you can log onto GitHub.com, click on your profile picture, then click Settings, and SSH and GPG Keys, or by clicking here. Once there, click New SSH Key, enter a title that identifies the device you’re adding the SSH key for and paste the contents into the key section.

You can then test your SSH key by running
```
ssh -T [email protected]
```
If successful, you’ll see a message like:
```
> Hi <em>username</em>! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not
> provide shell access.
```
March 22, 2022