bas-rustenburg
commented
7 years ago Version control with Git
Version control is important for maintaining the integrity of a software project. Tools like git, which is now the de facto standard for version control in most places, provide an interactive workflow environment for version control.
A version control system like git allows
- Track versions of files
- Connect and share code between computers using repositories (this is where github comes into the equation)
- Easy mirroring and branching of code bases
On the user side, it provides a context manager, easily allowing you to switch between different versions of code, known as branches. It also provides a workflow for extending and modifying existing code: There are 4 steps to modifying code:
- branch the code, starting from the current state of the project
- add changes to it, enabling new features, or modifying existing ones
- commit, formally declare what changes you want to keep
- merge, putting your changes back into the original code base.
Online repositories:
To make collaborating on codebases with other developers easier, it is important to use a central repository service, such as Github, or Bitbucket. These websites provide a location to host your repository, and an interface to discuss and merge code collaboratively.
Github provides some easy guides on how to get set up with git and github for the management of your codebases.
https://guides.github.com/introduction/getting-your-project-on-github/
In a collaborative project, before merging, it is important to discuss with other colleagues whether the changes are appropriate. On github, this is done by means of a pull request.
Below is a basic description of a workflow that uses github.
jchodera
We should have a section on how to effectively use version control software, focusing on GitHub, since this has become the de facto standard many computational chemistry software tools.