To check which branch you are currently on, use:
git branch
It should say:
* master
To create a new branch and switch into that branch at the same time, use:
git checkout -b my-new-branch
You should see:
Switched to a new branch 'my-new-branch'
This new branch will be an exact copy of the branch you were on when you called the command, which in this case is master.
Using whatever method you are comfortable with, create a file called random.txt inside your repo (in the same folder as question.txt), but feel free to leave it empty.
Then, edit question.txt to ask an additional question (Ex. "What is your favorite animal and why?").
You will need to add the file to git's tracking before making a commit, so first view the current changes with:
git status
You should see that you have an untracked file:
On branch my-new-branch
Changes not staged for commit:
(use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
(use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
modified: question.txt
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
random.txt
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
Add the new file with:
git add random.txt
Check the status again with git status and see that it no longer shows an untracked file. You should see:
On branch my-new-branch
Changes to be committed:
(use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
new file: random.txt
Changes not staged for commit:
(use "git add <file>..." to update what will be committed)
(use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
modified: question.txt
Then you can make a commit and add a commit message:
git commit -am "new question, added random file"
The -m option allows you to write a message labeling the commit. Ideally, your commit message is descriptive about what changed in this commit compared to the previous one. However, it should also be short (just a few words).
The -a option creates a snapshot of all changes to tracked files in the working directory.
You should see something like:
[my-new-branch 7286f7f] new question, added random file
2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 random.txt
List the files in your directory while you're on my-new-branch with:
ls
What do you see?
You should see your new file, random.txt, as well as the older file, question.txt.
Now view all your branches with:
git branch
This should show you both branches, with the current one highlighted and with an asterisk (the order in which they are listed doesn't matter):
master
* my-new-branch
To back to the master branch, use:
git checkout master.
Now that you are on the original master branch, use ls again to list the files in your repo. What is different from the last time you looked at the contents of this folder?
You should see that random.txt has disappeared! This is expected; this file was only added in my-new-branch and does not show up in other branches. If you switch back to my-new-branch using git checkout my-new-branch and enter ls, you will see the file again.
To check that you're on the master branch, use:
git branch
You should see:
* master
my-new-branch
Then, to merge changes from my-new-branch into your current branch (master), use:
git merge my-new-branch
You should see:
Updating 680c198..7286f7f
Fast-forward
question.txt | 2 ++
random.txt | 0
2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 random.txt
Use ls again to see your files. You should see that now random.txt shows up in the master branch. By merging my-new-branch into the master branch, you have brought the changes from my-new-branch into master.
Push your original master branch to remote.
Make sure you are on the master branch with:
git branch
You should see:
* master
my-new-branch
If you don't see this, you can switch to the master branch by using:
git checkout master
Check that you have no untracked files with:
git status
You should see:
On branch master
Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 1 commit.
(use "git push" to publish your local commits)
nothing to commit, working tree clean
Push the new changes to remote with:
git push origin master
You should see:
Enumerating objects: 6, done.
Counting objects: 100% (6/6), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Writing objects: 100% (4/4), 403 bytes | 403.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 4 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To github.com:<gitusername>/<repo>.git
680c198..7286f7f master -> master
You can check that your changes made it to remote by looking on your GitHub profile in the repo you created.
If you have extra time, delete your new branch to clean up. Make sure you are on the master branch with git branch (or change to master with git checkout master) because you cannot delete a branch you're currently on. Then delete the other branch with git branch -d my-new-branch. Check that the delete worked by using git branch to list all local branches.