Bash Commands & Git

If you're just getting started, you should also be familiar with some very easy bash commands such as file manipulation as your first step.

I recalled my most early day to dev, this part is probably the most uncomfortable thing to get started.

You can refer to this cheatsheet and this video

Watching the video is highly recommended cuz you can follow along with voice over.

For me, I most often use the following thing:

arrow up / down to go back to your last / next command
cd to change a directory, cd ../ to go back to parent dir, use tab could suggest the dir / file name to you
mkdir to create new folder
touch for a new file
less / head to peak a file
rm to remove a file or rm -rf to remove a directory
code to open a workspace/file in vscode,
usually you will have to know some vim,
- if first time opening vim caused some panic to you, plz remember to type : and then q! to exit the program
IO direction like >, sometimes it's useful to output a result of program to files
how to connect two commands together: know the diff between "&&" and ";"

Console

You might also want to use a good console if you're running a lot of tasks together.

iTerm2's a great choice as it supports screen splitting (mac only).

Git

Next thing a developer always use is the git tool. And you should register a Github Account btw.

Github is a version control tool that allows you to do the following:

create a repository (repo) to manage your code
track the changes in your code in the smallest unit of a "commit"
"revert" your code if you made a mistake
"push" and backup your code to the remote
"pull" and sync with the remote
allows multiple people to collab and "merge" the changes
allows different version to exist
"fork" (usually for contribution) or "clone" (another word for download) other's code to work as a base

The most important thing (or this is some common sense maybe) is to not store sensitive information (i.e. your private key) in Github!!

Always remember to use .gitignore!!!!

A typical user flow to git will be like this:

create a repo in a directory using git init
write a .gitignore to prevent some files from uploaded to the remote
write something and add some files and use git add . to stage all of your code
write a commit message: git commit -m '<your message>'
if you haven't added the remote, after you create a repo on github and copy the command of adding a remote
switch your branch to main: git checkout -b main (warning: not a good practice)
push your code: git push -u origin main

Typically, when you collab with other, plz remember not to commit code on the main or master branch, open a new branch with format like feat:some_new_feature or fix:a_fix and then submit a pull request (PR) for the owner to review.

To study the topic in depth (you want to especially know how to merge code manually if there's a lot of conflict happening), go here.

Other tools

After you get started with these two, the rest of cli will not be so strange to you, it's all about installing, reading the docs and find ways (google) to debug.

Welcome Package Management