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- Install git on your computer and create a GitHub account. Note that GitHub accounts are public unless you pay for a private account. The University of Texas also has an institutional repository for UT employees.
- Download and install a client to manage your repository. One possibility is GitHub Desktop (streamlined), another is Sourcetree (fancier). Alternatively, you can control the repository using your command line.
- Create a new repository or clone an existing one. If you want to take code that is existing on your computer and back it up to the cloud, then you’ll want to create a new repository. If you want to download code that someone else has stored in a repository, then you want to clone a repository.
- After you create a new repository and/or after you have edited files on your local computer, you will want to “commit” your changes to your local version of the repository. This involves two steps: adding or staging the file and committing the staged changes. When you commit the changes you’ll include a (usually brief) comment about what changes you made to the code.
- To back up the changes to the cloud, you’ll “push” the changes to the cloud repository.
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