Git – How to use the Ubuntu command line to pull a project that’s been uploaded onto Git

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I (think) I've set up Git correctly. How do I pull my friend's project that he's shared with me so that I can help him with it?

Best Solution

By "uploaded onto Git" I assume you mean "uploaded onto GitHub". That's an important distinction: Git is a source control system. GitHub is a place to host repositories that are controlled via git.

To clone a repository that is hosted on GitHub, first log into your github account and go to the main page (https://github.com/). Off to the right, just under the tiles at the top will be a section labeled "Your Repositories". The one your friend shared with you should be listed. Click on it. Then near the top of this new page, you'll see a git clone url like "git@github.com:abc/xyz.git". Copy this and then run the command:

git clone git@github.com:abc/xyz.git

Related Solutions

Git – How to add a blank directory to a Git repository

Another way to make a directory stay (almost) empty (in the repository) is to create a .gitignore file inside that directory that contains these four lines:

# Ignore everything in this directory
*
# Except this file
!.gitignore

Then you don't have to get the order right the way that you have to do in m104's solution.

This also gives the benefit that files in that directory won't show up as "untracked" when you do a git status.

Making @GreenAsJade's comment persistent:

I think it's worth noting that this solution does precisely what the question asked for, but is not perhaps what many people looking at this question will have been looking for. This solution guarantees that the directory remains empty. It says "I truly never want files checked in here". As opposed to "I don't have any files to check in here, yet, but I need the directory here, files may be coming later".

Git – View the change history of a file using Git versioning

For a graphical view I'd use gitk:

gitk [filename]

Or to follow filename past renames:

gitk --follow [filename]

Best Solution

Related Solutions

Git – How to add a blank directory to a Git repository

Git – View the change history of a file using Git versioning

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