ML-Geo-Pixel-Poppers

This is a github repository for our final project for ML Geo Au 23

ESS 469/569: ML Geo Au 23 Project lead: Nicole Aikin, [[email protected]], nicole-m-aikin Project helpers: Jonathan Lindenmann, [[email protected]], Jon's GitHub, Aiman Shamsul, [[email protected]], AimanHS Project GitHub: nicole-m-aikin/ML-Geo-Pixel-Poppers

Making changes to the repo (the proper way):

Note: Always make sure your local repo is up to date with the original remote repo (pull with git pull https://github.com/nicole-m-aikin/ML-Geo-Pixel-Poppers/) before you push your local changes to the original remote repo. Otherwise you may overwrite other changes.

Note that remote repositories are somewhere like GitHub, while local repositories are on your system. When you clone a remote repository, you now have a local repository that contains a reference, or link, to the remote repository, allowing you send and receive changes. Please refer to the Git Cheatsheet in this repo for a list of useful git commands.

In order to work on this repository, you want:

• to have your own copy to work on (forking and cloning)
• to work on individual tasks separately (creating a branch)
• to keep your copy up to date with any changes (link the original repo to your copy as a remote repo, letting you fetch changes)
• to save all your changes in your copy (committing changes within a branch, then merging the branch back in with your main local branch, and pushing to your remote fork.)
• to send your new version back to this original repository, so that all the changes you made can be added and any conflicting changes can be resolved. (pushing or pull requests)

Here are the steps to do this (do 1-3 once only):

1. Create your own fork of this repository. This creates a copy of this repository within your own GitHub, so that you can work on it in peace. Navigate to the 'fork' button on this repo's GitHub page and choose to fork to your own GitHub.

2. Clone your fork to your computer. This creates a copy of your forked repository on your computer, so that you can work on it offline and in your local system. In a command line interface (CLI) on your computer, navigate to the folder you want to have the cloned repo in using the pwd and cd commands, then enter:

   git clone yourForkedRepoURL

3. Add this (the original) repository as a remote repository named upstream. Your local repo is a clone of your remote fork, so it is connected to it. The remote fork is called origin in your local repo (you can use origin in place of the URL). This step creates this connection, naming the original repo upsteam so that you can refer to it that way and pull updates from it. This isn't necessary, but here's why you should do it: If you are working on your local repo making changes, but the original repo is updated, you'll want to get your fork/clone up to date with the original before you keep working on it. Rather than having to remember or find the URL of the original remote repo, you can just fetch or pull from upstream. (Something I learned from ChatGPT, a standard practice to make your workflow more intuitive.)

   All you have to do is navigate into the cloned repository with cd and pwd commands, then:

       git remote add upstream https://github.com/nicole-m-aikin/ML-Geo-Pixel-Poppers
   

   Now, when someone has update the original repository, you can just

   • git fetch upstream to see the changes made, then merge them into your local repo yourself
   • git pull upstream to fetch and merge in one fell swoop (make sure you're not getting rid of your own work when doing this).

Now, when you want to change or add something to the project, you can do so locally, then push your changes when you're done with ease.

4. Create a branch. Your repository has one main branch. If you are making tiny edits, you might not need a new branch, but if you are working on a bigger task or fixing an issue, you should create a branch in your local repo for that task, which you can then merge back into your local repo. That way, you are keeping each task you are working on isolated until it is complete.

   `git checkout -b descriptiveNameOfBranch`
   

Your local repo now has multiple branches. To see your branches and which one is active, use:

    `git branch`

and to switch to a branch, use

    `git checkout nameOfTheBranch`

When you are finished working on a branch, you can 'close' it by merging it with the main branch. To do so you need to switch to the main branch, and then merge the extra branch. Or, you can push just the branch you worked on back to the fork.

5. Make and commit changes in a branch. Any changes you make need to be committed to 'take effect' in git's version history. Git has a staging area so that you don't have to lose track of all the changes you are making. This is the idea:

   You edit a file, then stage it when finished. You create another file, and stage it when finished. etc. You review all your staged changes. You commit those changes to the active branch. You are done! making changes.

To stage a change, use git add filepath for a single file or git add . to add all changes. You can see all your unstaged and staged changes in different ways with a bunch of cool commands; check the cheatsheet.

When you are ready, commit your changes with a summary message:

    `git commit -m "Your commit message here"`

Now your local repository is officially changed. You'll want to push these changes back to your fork, and then push them back to the original repo.

6. Push Changes to Your Fork: You've made a bunch of changes and now you want to send them back to the original repository.

   Push your changes to your fork on GitHub in any number of ways:

push your entire local repo: git push origin push a specific branch: git push origin branchName push the main branch: git push origin main push the active branch: git push origin HEAD

To get the changes from your fork to the original repo, you can push them if you are an owner of the original repo (although you should still keep your fork synced up instead of skipping the push to fork), or you can create pull request if you are not an owner:

To create a pull request, go to your fork on GitHub and click on the branch you want to push (unless you are pushing the whole repo.) Click "New Pull Request". Add a title and description. The owner can now review the changes you submitted. Nicole, Aiman, and Jon all have owner access and can accept pull requests.

Remember to keep your fork updated with the original repository by periodically fetching changes from the upstream and merging them into your local and forked branches.