Introduction

Git is a distributed version control system that tracks changes in any set of computer files, usually used for coordinating work among programmers who are collaboratively developing source code during software development. Its goals include speed, data integrity, and support for distributed, non-linear workflows.

GitHub, however, is a platform and cloud-based service for software development and version control that uses Git, and allows developers to store and manage their code with GUIs and more features.

Using Git consists of many parts, and in this section, we'll go through each step that you sequentially need to understand, in order to start contributing to CHIME!

Usually, this involes creating a repository which can exist in an organization. Then, you will create an issue tracking a needed feature. From that, a branch is created to diverge from the main codebase so you can implement that feature and its changes. Once done, this becomes a pull request, essentially a request to merge your changes into the main codebase/branch. These issues, branches, and pull requests, that pertain to an repository in an organization, are often tracked in project boards. The pull request will usually trigger some automated tests and checks through actions. Once the pull request has been merged, a new release can then be made, automatically or manually.

More about actions and releases can be found in the CI/CD section.