managing versions

Question 1

what is version management?

Answer 1

keeping track of older versions of your code, i.e. if you make a mistake you can recover an older version, or, if you work with other people, you can merge your changes without a lot of headaches.

Question 2

what’s are some examples of revision management software?

Answer 2

git*, bizar, mercurial

*just use this!

Question 3

how do you use revision management software?

Answer 3

After writing some code (i.e. a small amount):

1) create a repository if you haven’t already, e.g. : git init .
2) check-in your the code you just wrote, with a description of what you did, e.g. git add .; git commit -m “Added a new function to contact morpheus”
3) push* your changes to a remote repository (that you share with your team), e.g. git push origin

*Note: you may need to get any changes other people made before you push: git fetch; git pull –rebase

Question 4

where can you setup a remote git repository (so you can share your work between computers or with other coders)?

Answer 4

github.com, bitbucket.com, ask dr. Goo-gle for more

Question 5

what’s an ssh-key?

Answer 5

you can generate a unique key-pair (i.e. public & private keys) so that whenever your current computer connects to a remote git-repository that system will know it’s you (and not somebody else).

Question 6

when do you share the private key?

Answer 6

never

Question 7

which of the ssh-key files do you share?

Answer 7

the public one, i.e. it ends with .pub, e.g. “id_rsa.pub” (not “id_rsa” which is the private key)