**Course Title:** Mastering Node.js: Building Scalable Web Applications **Section Title:** Version Control, Deployment, and CI/CD **Topic:** Introduction to Git and GitHub for version control **Overview** In this topic, we will introduce the concept of version control and its importance in software development. We will cover the basics of Git, a popular version control system, and GitHub, a web-based platform for hosting and managing Git repositories. By the end of this topic, you will understand how to use Git and GitHub to manage your code, collaborate with others, and maintain a history of changes. **What is Version Control? Version control is a system that helps you track changes to your code over time. It allows you to: * Keep a record of all changes made to your code * Collaborate with others on the same project * Roll back to previous versions if something goes wrong * Manage different versions of your code **What is Git?** Git is a free and open-source version control system that was created by Linus Torvalds in 2005. It is widely used in the software development industry and is considered one of the most popular version control systems available. **Key Features of Git** * **Distributed**: Git is a distributed version control system, which means that every developer working on a project has a full copy of the entire project history. * **Local**: Git stores data locally on your computer, which means that you don't need to be connected to the internet to use it. * **Fast**: Git is very fast, even for large projects. * **Flexible**: Git allows you to work on multiple branches and merge changes easily. **What is GitHub?** GitHub is a web-based platform for hosting and managing Git repositories. It was founded in 2008 and is now one of the largest code hosting platforms in the world. **Key Features of GitHub** * **Code Hosting**: GitHub allows you to host your Git repositories on its servers. * **Collaboration**: GitHub makes it easy to collaborate with others on the same project. * **Issue Tracking**: GitHub provides a built-in issue tracking system. * **Pull Requests**: GitHub allows you to create pull requests to merge changes into a repository. **Getting Started with Git and GitHub** To get started with Git and GitHub, you will need to: 1. **Install Git**: You can download and install Git from the official Git website. 2. **Create a GitHub Account**: You can create a GitHub account on the GitHub website. 3. **Create a New Repository**: You can create a new repository on GitHub and link it to your local Git repository. **Basic Git Commands** Here are some basic Git commands that you should know: * **git add**: Adds files to the staging area. * **git commit**: Commits changes to the local repository. * **git push**: Pushes changes to a remote repository. * **git pull**: Pulls changes from a remote repository. * **git log**: Displays a log of commits. **Conclusion** In this topic, we introduced the concept of version control and its importance in software development. We covered the basics of Git and GitHub, including key features, getting started, and basic Git commands. By following this topic, you should now have a good understanding of how to use Git and GitHub to manage your code, collaborate with others, and maintain a history of changes. **Practice Exercise** Create a new repository on GitHub and link it to your local Git repository. Practice using basic Git commands, such as `git add`, `git commit`, `git push`, `git pull`, and `git log`. **Additional Resources** * [Git Documentation](https://git-scm.com/docs) * [GitHub Documentation](https://docs.github.com/en) * [Git Tutorial](https://try.github.io/) **Leave a Comment** If you have any questions or need help with Git and GitHub, please leave a comment below.