class: center, middle, inverse, title-slide .title[ # Introduction to GitHub <br><br> and Integration with <br><br> RStudio <br><br> ] .author[ ### Jason Thomas ] .institute[ ### R Working Group ] .date[ ### Oct. 2nd, 2025 ] --- # Motivation * Messy projects, messy code, and sharing/collaboration? * GitHub to the rescue + GitHub is an on-line service that stores files, tracks versions, and more! * `git` is the program used for *version control* (i.e., managing and tracking different versions of your files) + RStudio adds features for running git on your computer <br> (RStudio's VC [user guide](https://docs.posit.co/ide/user/ide/guide/tools/version-control.html)) + (there are other programs for version control, e.g. `subversion`) --- # Motivation (cont.) * "and more" you say?? + renders *markdown* code (used to format text) <br> test drive: [https://markdownlivepreview.com](https://markdownlivepreview.com/) + websites, e.g. [https://buckipr.github.io/R_Working_Group/](https://buckipr.github.io/R_Working_Group/) + create different *branches* of you project + advanced features for software developers (making it popular and a common source for latest versions) --- # Getting Started * GitHub Account + (more details to come) * Install `git` + Windows: available for download from: [https://git-scm.com/downloads](https://git-scm.com/downloads) + MacOS: install Xcode from the App Store (includes git) + an excellent resource: [git book](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2) + (if you start using git/GitHub a lot it is well work taking a week or two and groing through the first few chapters) --- class: slide-font-25 # Getting Started (cont.) * Create **repository** on GitHub + a *repo* is a folder where all your project files are stored <br> (including those needed for managing version control) + can be on your computer (local) or on GitHub (remote) + the idea is to run git to track changes, then sync the local and remote repos (so your changes are available on GitHub) * Create project in RStudio + This will create a new file `project_name.Rproj` with information that RStudio uses to set up your project (e.g., GitHub repo details) + Configure your (local) copy of the repo with the remote copy (on Git Hub) --- class: inverse, center, middle # GitHub & Git --- ## **GitHub**: signing up Sign up for a free GitHub account: * [https://github.com/join](https://github.com/join) + you will need to create a new username and password + the *Free* subscription will work just fine + there is also an [educational account](https://help.github.com/en/articles/about-github-education-for-educators-and-researchers) that provides more resources + a verification email will be sent (check spam folder) --- ## GitHub: concepts and actions * **Clone** - copy a repository to your computer for the first time * **Pull** - update your local copy of the repo with any new changes on the remote repo + clone is basically a pull for the first time + you can also *fetch* - download changes (so you can inspect them) but do not sync them with your local repo * Make new files and changes to your local repo, then **STAGE** all the files you want to keep track of + this includes adding, renaming/moving, & removing files with any changes that you want to track --- ## GitHub: concepts and actions (cont.) * **Commit** - save your changes (they are now tracked) + typically include a message describing the commit + this creates a new version (or snap shot) of your project + you can go back and look at previous commits (or revert to that version) and look at differences between commits * **Push** - send your changes to GitHub + local repo will now be identical to remote repo --- ## Configure git & RStudio * GitHub requires more security than just a simple password authentication &rarr; **Personal Access Token** * The `usethis` package will help set this up, so let's install the package (if we haven't already) and attach it ``` r > install.package("usethis") # only need to run this once > library(usethis) ``` * Next we can check out the status of our `git` setup with ``` r > git_sitrep() ``` --- ## Configure RStudio (cont.) * Set our user name and email: ``` r > use_git_config(user.name = "<your name>", user.email = "<your email>") > git_sitrep() # check it worked ``` * (optional) set default branch name (same as what GitHub uses) ``` r > git_default_branch_configure() # default is main > git_sitrep() ``` * Set Personal Access Token ``` r > create_github_token() > # opens up GitHub page in web browser > # set note, expiration, then copy the token -> Generate Token > gitcreds::gitcreds_set() > # after running the above line, paste in the PAT ``` --- ## Create RStudio Project * Change to your project folder and set it as the working directory * Create an RStudio Project for you project folder: ``` r > create_project(".") > # the "." means use your working directory as the project folder ``` * RStudio will restart and open your new Project --- ## Create Repository * Turn local directory into a repo configured with your GitHub settings ``` r > library(usethis) # need to re-attach after restart > use_git() # turns our project folder into a repository that can > # be synced with GitHub ``` * `use_get()` will make a few changes to the .gitignore file and ask if you want to commit it and the .Rproj (RStudio project configuration file) to your repository. * RStudio will restart again and open your project folder --- ## Sync with GitHub * Now sync the local version of your repository with GitHub - (this will create the repository on GitHub and include the .gitignore & .Rproj files if you said 'yes' to the previous step) ``` r > library(usethis) > use_github() ```