Git + GitHub Workshop — Hands-On Practice

Welcome to the interactive portion of the workshop! Follow the steps below at your own pace. Don't worry if something goes wrong — that's what git is for.

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What You'll Do

1. Fork this repo and make your first commit
2. Open a Pull Request
3. Sync your fork with the original repo
4. Create a merge conflict (on purpose!) and resolve it

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Part 1: Fork, Commit, and Pull Request

🖥️ GUI (GitHub Desktop / VS Code / GitKraken)

Step 1 — Fork the repo

1. On this repo's GitHub page, click the Fork button (top right)
2. Choose your personal account as the destination
3. GitHub will create a copy of this repo under your username

Step 2 — Clone your fork locally

1. On your forked repo page, click the green Code button and copy the URL
2. In GitHub Desktop: File → Clone Repository → paste the URL
3. Choose a local folder and click Clone

Step 3 — Create your file

1. Open the cloned folder on your computer
2. Create a new file named exactly {github_username}.txt (replace {github_username} with your actual GitHub username — e.g. octocat.txt)
3. Inside the file, type:

   Hello, Git!
   

4. Save the file

Step 4 — Commit the file

1. In GitHub Desktop: your new file will appear in the Changes panel on the left
2. At the bottom left, type a short commit message (e.g. Add octocat.txt)
3. Click Commit to main

Step 5 — Push to GitHub

1. Click Push origin (top bar) to send your commit up to your fork on GitHub

Step 6 — Open a Pull Request

1. Go to your fork on GitHub (github.com/your-username/git_workshop)
2. You should see a banner: "This branch is 1 commit ahead" — click Contribute → Open pull request
3. Make sure the base repo is the original repo (the workshop one), not your fork
4. Give your PR a title and click Create pull request
5. 🎉 You've opened your first PR!

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⌨️ CLI (Terminal / Command Prompt / Git Bash)

Step 1 — Fork the repo

1. On this repo's GitHub page, click the Fork button (top right)
2. Choose your personal account as the destination

Step 2 — Clone your fork locally

git clone https://github.com/{github_username}/git_workshop.git
cd git_workshop

Step 3 — Create your file

# Replace {github_username} with your actual GitHub username
echo "Hello, Git!" > {github_username}.txt

Or create and edit the file manually in any text editor — just make sure it's named {github_username}.txt and contains Hello, Git!

Step 4 — Stage and commit the file

git add {github_username}.txt
git commit -m "Add {github_username}.txt"

Step 5 — Push to GitHub

git push origin main

Step 6 — Open a Pull Request

1. Go to your fork on GitHub (github.com/{github_username}/git_workshop)
2. Click Contribute → Open pull request
3. Make sure the base repo is the original workshop repo
4. Give your PR a title and click Create pull request

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Part 2: Syncing Your Fork

Once a few PRs have been merged into the original repo, your fork will be out of date. Here's how to sync it back up.

🖥️ GUI

1. On your fork's GitHub page, look for the "This branch is X commits behind" message
2. Click Sync fork → Update branch
3. In GitHub Desktop, click Fetch origin, then Pull origin to bring those changes down to your local machine

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⌨️ CLI

Add the original repo as a remote called upstream (you only need to do this once):

git remote add upstream https://github.com/owhite7128/git_workshop.git

Fetch and merge the latest changes from upstream:

git fetch upstream
git merge upstream/main
git push origin main

Your fork is now up to date with everyone else's changes.

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Part 3: Branches and Merge Conflicts

Time to break something — intentionally. This is how you learn to fix it.

Overview of what you're doing

You're going to create two different changes to the same line of your .txt file — one on main, one on a new branch — and then try to merge them together. Git won't know which to keep, so it'll ask you to decide. That's a merge conflict.

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🖥️ GUI

Step 1 — Create a branch (don't switch to it yet)

1. In GitHub Desktop: Branch → New Branch → name it conflict-branch → click Create Branch
2. When asked, choose "Leave my changes on main" (or similar) — you want to stay on main for now
3. Confirm you're still on main — check the branch name shown in the top bar

Step 2 — Edit your file on main

1. Open {github_username}.txt in a text editor
2. Add a new line with something coy — for example:

   Hello, Git!
   I heard you like commits.
   

3. Save the file
4. In GitHub Desktop: commit this change with a message like A coy message on main
5. Push to origin

Step 3 — Switch to your branch and make a conflicting change

1. In GitHub Desktop: click the branch dropdown and switch to conflict-branch
2. Open {github_username}.txt again — notice your coy message isn't there (you're on a different branch!)
3. Add a new line that says:

   Hello, Git!
   Merge Conflict
   

4. Save, commit with a message like Conflicting change on branch, and push

Step 4 — Merge the branch into main and resolve the conflict

1. Switch back to main in the branch dropdown
2. In GitHub Desktop: Branch → Merge into Current Branch → select conflict-branch → click Merge
3. GitHub Desktop will tell you there's a conflict. Click Open in editor (or open the file manually)
4. Your file will look something like this:

   Hello, Git!
   <<<<<<< HEAD
   I heard you like commits.
   =======
   Merge Conflict
   >>>>>>> conflict-branch
   

5. Edit the file to keep what you want (you can keep one, both, or rewrite entirely). Remove the <<<<<<<, =======, and >>>>>>> lines — those are git's markers, not content
6. Save the file
7. In GitHub Desktop: the file should now show as resolved — commit the merge

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⌨️ CLI

Step 1 — Create a branch without switching to it

git branch conflict-branch

You're still on main. Confirm with:

git branch
# The * shows your current branch

Step 2 — Edit your file on main Open {github_username}.txt and add a new line with something coy:

Hello, Git!
I heard you like commits.

Then commit:

git add {github_username}.txt
git commit -m "A coy message on main"

Step 3 — Switch to the branch and make a conflicting change

git switch conflict-branch

Open {github_username}.txt — your coy line isn't here. Add this instead:

Hello, Git!
Merge Conflict

Commit it:

git add {github_username}.txt
git commit -m "Conflicting change on branch"

Step 4 — Switch back to main and merge

git switch main
git merge conflict-branch

Git will tell you there's a conflict:

CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in {github_username}.txt
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.

Step 5 — Open the file and resolve it Your file will look like this:

Hello, Git!
<<<<<<< HEAD
I heard you like commits.
=======
Merge Conflict
>>>>>>> conflict-branch

Edit it to keep what you want, and delete all three marker lines (<<<<<<<, =======, >>>>>>>). Then:

git add {github_username}.txt
git commit -m "Resolve merge conflict"

🎉 You resolved your first merge conflict.

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Reference: Commands Used Today

What you did	CLI command
Clone a repo	git clone <url>
Check current branch	git branch
Stage a file	git add <filename>
Commit staged changes	git commit -m "message"
Push to GitHub	git push origin main
Create a branch	git branch <name>
Switch branches	git switch <name>
Merge a branch	git merge <name>
Add upstream remote	git remote add upstream <url>
Fetch from upstream	git fetch upstream

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Made with ❤️ for the Git + GitHub workshop.