Installing Git

On Windows, follow this link to go to the Git homepage.

Click the blue download button inside the picture of a computer monitor. This screenshot shows the Windows version selected, but the link should automatically be set for whatever operating system you are using.

If you are on a Linux or Macintosh, git should already be installed or can be installed through the package manager of your OS.

Setting up git access to a repository

When you are cloning a private repository, or pushing changes to one, you need to be authenticated by Github. This requires the use of a private key or of a token. We suggest that you create a personal access token (PAT).

Go to Personal Access Tokens on github.com. The link should work, if it doesn't, go to Settings, then Developer Settings, then Personal Access Tokens:

Check the repo box, give it a name and an expiration date, and create the token. Once created, copy the key and store it somewhere secure. GitHub will only display it to you once, so it's important to store it elsewhere so that you can use it to authenticate later.

Your token will look like this: ghp_rv4djkhsdfEWIkJHSKJfd787fsRV.

Now you are able to use this token as follows. Whenever you are cloning a Github repository, use the https method (not ssh) and insert the token in the URL.

For instance, the repo for these Docs is at https://github.com/team401/Docs.git when using the https methods, which is shown here:

You would therefore use https://ghp_rv4djkhsdfEWIkJHSKJfd787fsRV@github.com/team401/Docs.git to clone it using your token, for instance,

git clone https://ghp_rv4djkhsdfEWIkJHSKJfd787fsRV@github.com/team401/Docs.git

It is also possible to change the method of authentication after the fact. We could use this on shared laptops that may be used by multiple students if they end up working in the same project directory. For instance, to change the current upstream URL of a repo, use

git remote set-url origin https://ghp_rv4djkhsdfEWIkJHSKJfd787fsRV@github.com/team401/Docs.git

To ensure that commit messages appear under your name, you should also reset the name and email settings for this repo.

git config --local user.email your@email
git config --local user.name "Your Name"

Note this method is not necessary if students work in different project directories. In that case, the settings from the active project directory will be used.

Side note an alternative authentication method is to use private ssh keys, in which case the remote URL will start with git@github.com, e.g. git@github.com:team401/Docs.git.