Version Control: Git, Git LFS, & Github

What Is It?

Git is a version control system used to allow multiple developers to work on the same codebase while handling backups

Git can be accessed via a terminal window using command line instructions, or via the Github Desktop app.

What Are The Benefits?

• Version Control - You can always go back in time and recover your old files

• Branches - Work with multiple developers on your own branch, then merge the results together

• Standardization - Git is the default version control for all software projects worldwide

Git Installation Instructions

• Visit the Git installation page https://git-scm.com/download/win

• Normally you'll need to choose the 64-bit standalone installer for Windows

• Open the installer and choose the default options

Git Command Line Instructions

Although not strictly required to learn if you use an application like Github Desktop, it is still recommend you practice the basics of running Git command line instructions.

Github

Github is the leading hosting service for the majority of code repositories. It's a great tool for hosting your code and also finding projects and discussions.

To continue, you'll need to create a Github account for yourself if you haven't already. Sign up here for a Github account. After account creation you'll be able to join organizations and see their project repositories as well as use your account for your own projects.

Github Desktop

Github Desktop is a desktop application provided by the Github organization that allows you to more easily interact with Git repositories without having to use the command line.

Under the hood everything Github Desktop does is do-able via Git command line instructions.

To install Github Desktop, download it from Github and install with the default options. When you're given the opportunity to choose a terminal to use, we recommend choosing Visual Studio Code if you already have it installed.

Git LFS

Git LFS (Large File System) is an additional plugin for the Git ecosystem that allows large files to be uploaded to Github. This is at an additional cost, paid for by the organization the repository is hosted on, which is why it isn't included by default.

This normally isn't needed for code, but larger asset files like textures, audio, and video files can go over the small file size limit that standard Git is limited to.

To install Git LFS, click here to get started.