Glossary

Key Points

Introduction	Challenges for sharing code include making sure everyone has access to the latest version, everyone can contribute equally, keeping organized, and making sure everyone has equal opportunity to contribute. Branches and pull/merge requests provide mechanisms for individuals to work on the code independently and then integrate those changes into the main codebase. Git workflows are used to stay organized and productive.
Branches	Branches allow team members to work on code without impacting the work of other developers or users Create a new branch with the git checkout -b command, for example: git checkout -b my_branch Change to another branch with the git checkout command, for example: git checkout my_other_branch Merge my_branch into the current branch with with the git merge command, for example: git merge my_branch Rebasing rewrites history and can sometimes be used instead of merge, where appropriate Never rebase on a public branch
Pull Requests	A Pull Request is a GitHub a process to request that a branch be merged into another branch. Pull requests provide a process and an opportunity for code review before merging branches and can be a mechanism for proposing, discussing, and requesting changes before the branch is merged.
Git Workflows	A git workflow describes how a team or group of contributors is to interact with a repository Git workflows keep a team organized and on the same page by helping them understand what state the code is in

repository: The project, contains all data and history (commits, branches, tags).
remote (repository): The copy of the repository on a remote server, such as GitHub. Accessible to anyone who has access to the repository on the server. Also referred to as the “central” repository.
local (repository): A copy of the repository in another place, such as a laptop or your home directory on a cluster. Generally accessible to one person.
commit: Snapshot of the project, gets a unique identifier (e.g. c7f0e8bfc718be04525847fc7ac237f470add76e).
branch: Independent development line. The main development line is often called main or master.
tag: A pointer to one commit, to be able to refer to it later. Like a commemorative plaque that you attach to a particular commit (e.g. phd-printed or paper-submitted).
cloning: Copying the whole repository to your laptop - the first time. It is not necessary to download each file one by one. This creates a local copy of the repository.
forking: Taking a copy of a repository (which is typically not yours) - your copy (fork) stays on GitHub/GitLab and you can make changes to your copy.
pull: Bring changes from a remote repository to your local repository.
push: Bring changes from your local repository to the remote repository.