Managing source code with GitHub

Git is a commonly used source code management system. GitHub is a company, website, and desktop application that makes it easier to manage Git.

I used GitHub to store solutions to all the practical exercises at the end of each chapter at the following URL:

https://github.com/markjprice/cs7dotnetcore2

Using Git with Visual Studio 2017

Visual Studio 2017 has built-in support for using Git with GitHub as well as Microsoft's own source code management system named Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS).

Using the Team Explorer window

In Visual Studio 2017, navigate to View | Team Explorer, as shown in the following screenshot:

Although it is a good idea to sign up with an online source code management system provider, you can clone a GitHub repository without signing up for an account.

Cloning a GitHub repository

In the Team Explorer window, expand Local Git Repositories, click on the Clone menu, and then enter the following URL of a Git repository to clone it:

https://github.com/markjprice/cs7dotnetcore2.git

Enter a path for the cloned Git repository:

C:\Code\Repos\cs7dotnetcore2

Click on the Clone button, as shown in the following screenshot:

Wait for the Git repository to clone locally.

You will now have a local copy of the complete solutions to all of the hands-on practice exercises for this book.

Managing a GitHub repository

Double-click on the cs7dotnetcore2 repo to open a detail view.

You can click on the options in the Project section to view Pull Requests and Issues, and other aspects of a repository.

You can double-click on an entry in the Solutions section to open it in Solution Explorer.

Using Git with Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code has support for Git, but it will use your OS's Git installation, so you must install Git 2.0 or later first before you get these features. You can install Git from the following link:

https://git-scm.com/download

If you like to use a GUI, you can download GitHub Desktop from the following link:
https://desktop.github.com

Configuring Git at the command line

Launch Terminal, and enter the following command to check your configuration:

git config --list

The output should include your username and email address, because these will be used with every commit that you make:

...other congfiguration...
user.name=Mark J. Price
[email protected]

If your username and email has not been set, to set your username and email, enter the following commands, using your own name and email, not mine:

git config --global user.name "Mark J. Price"
git config --global user.email [email protected]

You can check an individual configuration setting like this:

git config user.name

Managing Git with Visual Studio Code

Launch Visual Studio Code, and open the Code folder.

Navigate to View | Integrated Terminal or press Ctrl + `, and enter the following commands:

mkdir Repos
cd Repos
git clone https://github.com/markjprice/cs7dotnetcore2.git

Cloning all of the solutions for all of the chapters to your local drive will take a minute, as shown in the following screenshot:

For more information about source code version control with Visual Studio Code, visit the following link:
https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs/editor/versioncontrol