In this video, we're going to copy a GitHub repository to your local computer. The process
I'll show you will work for a repo you created yourself or a repo you forked from someone
else. For this demo, I'm going to use the "test-repo" that we created in the last video.
Let's open up Git Bash. This shows my working directory. I'm going to change my working
directory to the Desktop.
Now we're ready to go. Note that all git commands start with the word "git", and then the name
of the command, and then usually one or more arguments. In this case, we're going to use
the "git clone" command to clone a GitHub repo.
You simply type "git clone" and then the URL of the repo. How do you get that URL? I recommend
that you go to the repo, scroll down here, and click the "Copy" button. Now go back to
Git Bash, and at least in Windows, you can hit the "Insert" button on your keyboard to
paste it. (The usual paste keyboard shortcut doesn't seem to work in Git Bash.) If all
else fails, just paste the URL somewhere else and retype it.
If you're following along at home, you should hit "Enter" at this point. I'm actually going
to change my URL because I use SSH instead of HTTPS to communicate with GitHub.
I now hit Enter, and it asks me for my password. When typing, it won't show you anything. Hit
Enter when you're done, and if you typed the wrong password, just try again.
The cloning operation is now complete. It has copied the repo into a subdirectory of
my working directory, and that subdirectory has the same name as the repo. So, I can just
"cd" into "test-repo" and "ls" to see the list of files.
Notice that it now says "master". That indicates that I'm now in a folder that is being tracked
by Git, and I'm currently working on the "master" branch. I don't need to run the "git init"
command, because git has already been initialized in the folder. On Windows, if you're set up
to show hidden files, you can also see this ".git" folder where all of the Git information
is stored.
Next, let's check on your "remotes". Remotes are simply references to repos that are not
on your computer. To see your remotes, type "git remote -v". You'll see a remote called
"origin", which links to your repo. This reference was automatically created during the cloning
process.
If you don't have an origin remote, you can add one by typing "git remote add origin"
and then the URL of your repo. The same one from here.
We've now cloned the repo and set up a remote. In the next video, we'll actually make some
changes locally, commit them, and then push them up to GitHub.