Version Control with Git

On the 25th of May 2023, ELIXIR-Estonia organized a face-to-face data carpentry course in English: Version Control with Git.

Git is used worldwide to help developers keep track of changes while working on different parts of the same project. Teams are not the only ones to benefit from version control: lone researchers can benefit immensely. Keeping a record of what was changed, when, and why is extremely useful for all researchers if they ever need to return to the project later (e.g., a year later, when memory has faded).

Version control is the lab notebook of the digital world: it’s what professionals use to keep track of what they’ve done and to collaborate with other people. Every large software development project relies on it, and most programmers use it for their small jobs as well. And it isn’t just for software: books, papers, small data sets, and anything that changes over time or needs to be shared can and should be stored in a version control system.

Learning outcomes:

• Know how to do version control and why it’s important
• Know how to set up and create a repository in Git
• Know how to track changes and collaborate in Git
• Know how to solve conflicts in Git