Install git on your computer. On Windows/Mac/Linux, you can run git from the terminal/command prompt/Anaconda prompt. You might want to make a local folder called github where you put all your repositories.
mkdir github
cd github
Now in the folder of your choice, you can clone (download) a github repository. You append .git to the web address.
git clone https://github.com/AllenInstitute/AllenSDK.git
Now enter this folder and list all the branches
cd AllenSDK
git branch -a
We can checkout one of these branches
git checkout 207
These branches are development code that is separate from the master. Often you make a branch to add a new feature and then merge the feature into the main branch. So you may want to checkout a branch to get the latest features of the code.
To get back to master, git checkout master. To get the LATEST code, use the pull command:
git pull
Note these commands will only work in a repository that you are a contributor/owner. If you change a file, you can commit the changes to that file with
git commit -a -m 'my commit'
git push
The commit message is 'my commit', it should say what code you've changed so you know for future reference.
To add new files to the repository that you've added only locally, say
git add mytext.txt
git commit -a -m 'mytext added'
git push
You can also add all new files simultaneously, but make sure you are not adding unwanted files in subdirectories etc
git add -a
git commit -a
git push
If the repository was changed by another user, the git push command will fail and prompt you to git pull first, then you can try git push again. If your changes have conflicts with those of another user, the git pull command will inform you of conflicts, which you will have to fix manually, then commit again.
This isn't our repository so we can't make a branch, add a feature and push it to the master branch. But we can fork the repository and make a branch there, and then if we want to suggest these changes to the master branch we make a pull request.
To make a fork, you'll need to click on the fork button on the github page and then clone the fork. Now you'll have your OWN version of this repository.
cd ..
mkdir fork
cd fork
git clone https://github.com/carsen-stringer/AllenSDK.git
cd AllenSDK
Make a branch and push it to github (push means put the code on github)
git checkout master
git checkout -b mybranch
git push origin mybranch
Now if you run git branch -a you'll see a new branch mybranch with a star next to it, signifying that you're on that branch.
From the github website, you can make a pull request with this branch and add comments about what it does. I'd recommend doing it this way if you're suggesting changes to someone else's repository.
If this is your own repository then the following will merge the branch into the master branch:
git checkout master
git merge mybranch
You can run a "pip/conda" installed package from any folder. You can also run github versions of code packages (and their various branches) without "pip" installation, but you have to be in the repository folder to run the code OR add it to your path. The github version will not mess with your "pip" installed version, it will just be a different folder on your computer.
If you want to, you can pip install a github version with the command pip install git+https://github.com/pyqtgraph/pyqtgraph.
To add a folder with *.py files to your path in python in a jupyter-notebook for instance, use the following
import sys
sys.path.insert(0, 'PATH')