Git and GitHub for Freshers: A Beginner's Guide

Apr 14, 2025

🚀 Whether you’re building your first project or collaborating on open source, Git and GitHub are essential tools every developer should know. This guide is for absolute beginners.

🧠 What is Git?

Git is a version control system — like a time machine for your code.

It helps you:

Track changes to files
Go back to previous versions
Collaborate with others without overwriting each other’s work

📦 Real-life analogy:
Think of Git as Google Docs version history, but for code — and way more powerful.

🌐 What is GitHub?

GitHub is a platform (like social media for code) where:

You can host your Git repositories (online storage)
Collaborate with others
Showcase your projects

🔗 Git = local version control
☁️ GitHub = cloud hosting for your Git projects

🔧 Basic Git Commands (With Examples)

Let’s go step-by-step.

1. 🔍 Check if Git is installed

git --version

If not installed: Download Git

2. 🗂 Initialize a Git repository

git init

Creates a hidden .git/ folder — the heart of version control.

3. 🧾 Track files

git add file.txt

Or to add everything:

git add .

4. 💬 Save changes with a message

git commit -m "Added my first file"

5. 🔗 Connect to GitHub

First, create a repo on GitHub (don’t initialize with README).

Then connect:

git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo.git

6. 🚀 Push your code

git push -u origin main

First time push uses -u to link your local main branch to remote.

🔁 Common Git Workflow

git add .
git commit -m "your message"
git push

📂 Cloning a GitHub repo

git clone https://github.com/username/repo.git

This will create a folder and pull all code from that repo.

🧭 Git Branching Basics

Create a new branch:

git checkout -b feature-branch

Switch branches:

git checkout main

Merge a branch into `main`:

git checkout main
git merge feature-branch

🧹 Useful Git Commands

View status:
```
git status
```
See commit history:
```
git log
```
Undo changes before commit:
```
git restore file.txt
```
Remove staged files:
```
git reset
```

🧪 Practice Time!

Try this mini-project:

mkdir git-practice
cd git-practice
git init
echo "# Hello Git" > README.md
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"

Create a GitHub repo, link it using git remote add, and push your code!

🙋 Common Questions

Q: Is Git and GitHub the same?
A: No. Git is the tool, GitHub is a platform to host and share Git repositories.

Q: What is origin?
A: It’s the default name Git gives to the remote repository on GitHub.

Q: What if I mess something up?
A: Git is very forgiving. Use git log, git checkout, or git restore to go back.

💡 Final Tips

Use meaningful commit messages
Commit often
Don’t be afraid of branches
Practice on dummy projects
Contribute to open source!

📚 Resources

💬 Still confused about anything? Drop me a message here: Connect