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3. Branching

Mastering Branching on GitHub

Branching is a cornerstone of collaborative and individual project management on GitHub. It allows you to work on new features, experiment, and make fixes in isolation from the main project line. This guide will equip you with a thorough understanding of branching and how to use it effectively.

Explore Branching Through Our Video Tutorial

For a hands-on learning experience, watch our detailed video tutorial on branching. It’s designed to help you master branching concepts and techniques with ease:

Watch the Branching Video Tutorial

The Essentials of GitHub Branching

A branch in GitHub allows you to diverge from the main development line, enabling you to work on new features, experiments, or fixes in isolation. The default branch is main, and creating a new branch makes a snapshot of main at that moment. It’s important to note that any subsequent changes to main won’t affect your branch unless you choose to integrate them.

Why Branch?

  • Feature Development: Isolate new feature development from the stable codebase.
  • Bug Fixes: Address and fix issues without disrupting the main development flow.
  • Experimentation: Try out new ideas in a sandboxed environment without risk to the main project.

Creating and Switching Branches

To leverage the full power of branches, follow these steps to create and switch to a new branch:

  1. Navigate to Your Repository: Go to your GitHub repository where you wish to create a new branch.
  2. Open the Branch Menu: Click the drop-down menu at the top of the file list that displays “branch: main.”
  3. Name Your Branch: Enter the name for your new branch in the text box.
  4. Switch to Your New Branch: To begin working on your new branch, you’ll need to switch to it locally. Open your terminal or command prompt and execute:
    Terminal window
    git checkout -b <new-branch-name>
    This command not only switches to your new branch but also creates it if it doesn’t exist.

Next Steps: Committing Your Changes

Now that you’ve created a branch, you’re ready to start making changes. Remember, the modifications you make on this branch are isolated from the main line of development. This isolation allows you to develop features, fix bugs, or experiment freely.

For guidance on how to commit your changes and further collaborate using GitHub, please refer to the next section of our guide.