Getting Started with Github

For this course you will need to use github to manage your code and submit your assignments. Git is a widely used version control system originally developed by Linus Torvalds for use in managing development of the Linux operating system kernel. Github is company that provides free web-hosting for git repositories.

Follow the instructions below to get started using git and set up the repository you will use for this class (we'll talk more about git in class, but this should be enough to get started):

1. Register for a student github account: https://github.com/edu

   Note: you need to do this even if you already have a public github account, unless you have a paid account to support non-public repositories. With the student account, you will be able to have non-public repositories for free.

   You will need to verify your email address, and then go back to the https://github.com/edu page to fill in a form to request a student account. You should then receive a "Powerup get!" message from github, and be able to create private repositories with your account.

2. Set up git on the machine you will use for course assignments. Follow the instructions here: https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git. If you use the provided VirtualBox image, git is already installed, so just skip the Download and Install Git section. Otherwise, follow the instructions to download and install a git client for your OS (Mac, Windows).

For most of the assignments in this course, we will provide starting code in a git repository. For how to set up the repository for working on your problem set, follow these directions.