Basic GitHub Glossary

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Friday, 16th March 2012

I'm about to write a couple of articles on GitHub and it will be useful to know the following terms if you are interested in reading them. I have explained each of them in a way that will help people who are using GitHub after having used another source control system, such as Subversion.

This is not an exhaustive list, but contains all the basic definitions you may need when forking around with projects on GitHub.

Branch

Not to be confused with a "Feature Branch" - with Git, everyone works on a local branch of the code.

Clone

Not typically used in other source control systems - creates your local branch of the code from your online repository.

Commit

Not to be confused with "Commit" in other source control systems - the act of submitting changes to your local branch of the repository.

Fetch

Also goes under the names of "Get Latest" or "Update" - the activity of getting changes from the origin that other people have made.

Fork

A bit like taking a "Branch" - creates an online copy of a repository on GitHub.

Merge

Almost always known as "Merge" - the act of combining other people's changes with your own.

Origin

Otherwise known as "Trunk" or "Master" - the place where the code lives and where people will look for it when they need it.

Pull

See "Fetch" and "Merge" - pull attempts to do both a fetch and a merge in a single operation.

Push

Known as "Commit" in most other source control systems - the act of sending your changes back to the origin.