The trouble with the Graphical User Interface

How could something so ordinary be so unhelpful?

??

...depending on cloud storage configuration, how you've had to work with files in the past

We all get lost in the GUI...

Coding requires keeping your folders and files together and being able to navigate them.

See "Zen and the art of file and folder organization" How-To-Geek (2010)...or

better yet...

...learn command line!

a proper place for everything, and everything in its proper place

You can call it:

• command line
• terminal
• shell

It offers:

• freedom from the GUI
• precise and mindful file management

We're all using the "posix-compatible" shells now, so we will speak mostly the same language

So, we'll start with some basic shell commands for navigating your system and getting info about your files

Then we'll move to the special git commands that handle version control:

• add files for "staging",
• commit them to update their "snapshot",
• and pull / push them to shared repositories in the cloud.

cd

cd [space]

cd directoryName

cd ..

pwd

ls

ls -lh

change directory (go walking the directory tree up or down)

print working directory
(show me the full filepath location where I am right now)

list files and directories below me
("look see")

cd [space] takes you to the "home" directory of your computer. Try it, and then enter pwd to see where it takes you.

cd directoryName goes down a level into the directory you indicate

cd .. climbs UP to the parent directory

ls -lh adds a special flag to return lots of information about last-access dates and file sizes and more.

mkdir directory

 mkdir myNewDirectory

touch file

"make directory": Use this as a convenient way to create and name a new directory. Remember: do NOT put spaces in your directory or file names!  

Spaces in folder and filenames makes it very difficult to navigate or share them!

Use this to create a new file. It will be empty until you edit it to add new content. You could, for example, start a new file named newFile.xml, open it in oXygen and edit it. 

touch newFile.xml

 grep -n "slime" Slime.xml

grep -r "string" .

grep "string" file.xml

grep literally means "global regular expression print". It means, go searching for a string in a file or a directory.

You can ignore case with -i.

You can plug in regex patterns with -E or egrep

literally, "concatenate", or just show all the contents of a file

 cat Slime.xml

 grep -E rec.p Slime.xml

 wc Slime.xml

"word count". Gives you four columns:
numbers of lines, number of words, number of characters, filename
 

that reads:
ls "pipe" wc -"el"

This is handy way to count the files in a directory!  ls sends a list of your files to the wc function, which counts their lines, giving you a file count.

These commands can rename a file, or move it to a new location. Indicate the source file and the destination directory. If renaming indicate the new name.ext
mv deletes the original. cp copies without deleting the original

Renaming a file: Navigate to its directory, and use mv to change the name: 

Copies the file without deleting the original. Use the [tab] key to autocomplete to help you be sure a directory or filename is where you think it is. 

mv joeyClassPush.xml joeyExample.xml

Usually we do that in GitHub, and then clone it to a precise location on our local computers.

A proper place for everything, and everything in its proper place.

Now it's time to learn how to change the state of your repo, to move and change files

Watch me first. . .

git pull

Scenario 1: Could  you have pushed something to your remote repo from a school computer or the web interface? Are you at home now? Pull in your changes!

Scenario 2: Did your teammates or Dr. B push something to your branch the remote class or project repo? Pull in their changes!

git pull

Usually you should git pull before you add, commit, and push anything new.
Exception to this: You have a change that you needed to commit but neglected. someone else added changes to the file. If you pulled in those changes, you'd lose your work. In this case, you should add the file first, with git add filename.ext

git status

This tells you the status of your local repo only, whether there is anything new to be added, committed, or pushed.

git remote show origin

Super useful command! git remote show origin provides information on the status of the remote repo on this branch by comparison with your local repo.

git add -A

git add filename.ext

git commit -m "your commit message"

This "stages" your files or deletions in git's system to indicate that they are important and should not be overwritten when you do a git pull. You must git add your files before you can commit them. You can add every change with -A, or add only specific files.

git push

Sends your commit to the remote repo's version of your branch.

Why isn't my username and password enough?

Follow HowToGeek's super-helpful instructions on how to set up your Developer token. Follow instructions for your computer (Windows / Linux / Mac) on storing your credentials. Once you enter them and have your local git configuration properly set up, you won't ever need to enter a password again!

When you'll need this: 

You'll be prompted in your shell when you try to push to enter a special developer token and it can't just be your password.

Because hackers are everywhere, what's stored in GitHub repos can be sensitive, and GitHub provides enhanced security. Passwords are more easily hacked than long developer tokens.