Adding git to Intellij

[kevin Abel]

I want to learn how to connect IntelliJ to git.    Chat GPT gave me these instructions.  I did the git install for Windows 64 bit.  I have done this before so it went fine.  

I am on this step and I don't see the place to set my email and name.  I made it bold in the text below.   I'll look for an alternate way finding instructions in case ChatGPT is dreaming up stuff again.  Has anyone done this setup before?  


Using Git with IntelliJ IDEA is straightforward and convenient. IntelliJ IDEA has built-in support for Git, which means you can perform most version control tasks directly from the IDE without needing to use the command line. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to use Git with IntelliJ IDEA:

Install Git:
If you haven't already installed Git on your system, you can download it from the official website (https://git-scm.com/) and follow the installation instructions.

Configure Git in IntelliJ:
Before using Git in IntelliJ IDEA, you need to configure your Git credentials. Open IntelliJ IDEA, go to File > Settings (or IntelliJ IDEA > Preferences on macOS). In the settings window, navigate to Version Control > Git. Here you can set your name and email address, which will be used for committing changes.

[kevin Abel]

I found more instructions on Jet brains.  it says to use github and not git in the Intellij Settings.

I reset my github username and pw and logged into github to make sure it works.

When I enter my email and password in Intellij it gives an error:

Invalid Authentication error.   Also something about plugin access token.  I don't know what that means.

Thanks,

Kevin

[kevin Abel]

After struggling for an hour I found out how to get the github token:

sign in to github.
Left click on my face icon
settings
developer settings.
Ask for a new token.
copy the token

I might have IntelliJ connected to github.  i'm not sure.  I also don't know how to use git from intellij.

This person had similar github setup trouble.

https://coderanch.com/t/695011/intellij-idea/ide/IntelliJ-GitHub

Thanks,

Kevin

[Tim Holloway]

Time to get pedantic again. This might clear some confusion.

"git" is a version control system like cvs, Subversion, Mercurial, and so forth. Git itself is an installed application on your OS. Git can work with either local or remote source archives, as well as having the ability to archive remotely and push/pull to a remote archive, which makes it different from most of its predecessors, which were either all-local (rcs, for example), or all-remote (see the list above).

IntelliJ comes with a git "driver" plugin pre-installed. I don't actually know if installing IntelliJ also installs Git itself or not, since git was a "pre-existing condition" on my machine, although it is not installed by default on all Linux distros. Regardless, IntelliJ is giving you a friendly GUI to talk to git. There are other git interfaces, such as the file manager plugins like Turtle, but let's stick to IntelliJ.

Git can connect to one or more remote servers, as I said, and the most famous of them are GitLab and GitHub. It can use https or SSL to do so. but in any event, you must supply suitable credentials (userid/password or a security certificate) in most cases when you connect. So "adding git to IntelliJ" in the above context would appear to mean "how can I connect my Intellij project to my desired remote git server?".

Git is not limited to gitlab and github. Anyone can host a git server, either as a raw git server or with an associated GUI such as a webapp. The https://gogs.mousetech.com server, for example, is one that I host projects on, including my Spring Boot-based recipe manager app. It runs in a Docker container, and though its URL says "gogs", it's presently running a fork of the gogs app called "gitea" because gogs hasn't been able to get the support it needed lately.

[kevin Abel]

Tim,

Tim wrote:So "adding git to IntelliJ" in the above context would appear to mean "how can I connect my Intellij project to my desired remote git server?".

I had git and also GitTortoise on my PC.  I used Tortoise with another Version Control System.   Tortoise was marking my files as saved and they were just getting thrown away.  I lost a lot of work on one job.  I demonstrated the behavior and they could not figure out why it was only happening to me.  It was for a client where I was planning to leave but it left me with a distrust.  

I had an older local copy of git on my PC.   I realized it when I was installing it.  Now I have the new version.

I think I got the username, password and token set up correctly.  (maybe??)  

I just figured out how to create a completely new project in Intellij.   I thought is was a right click on the top of the tree.  It is not.  New project is under file in the menu bar.

I have files on Github.  I forgot how I got them there but I can figure it out.  

I want to store my new project on Github directly from Intellij.    I forgot the commands in git but I can look them up.   Also I have a coffee cup with the git commands on it.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Ron McLeod]

If you are concerned about accidently losing your work while studying, a simpler alternative would be to just use zip or tar periodically, and save a collection of snapshots.

[Liutauras Vilda]

Either what Ron says or learn basic git commands using command line first, and then seek for automating it via IntelliJ IDEA which of course is brilliant, I use it every day, but it is useful to understand what actual git commands it wraps.

Some people use git via command line all the time, regardless of great IDEs integration. I sometimes do too, depending on what I do. Most beneficial for me is the diff visualisation within the IDE, which is much more user friendlier than command line.

When you get more experienced with terminal, you'd find that via terminal you could operate git much quicker than via IDE, because you don't need to move mouse cursor around, so the choice will be yours.

[Ron McLeod]

Yeah - I suggested zip because the learning curve is low.  Git is great, but if the use-case is just to save your work in-case of a whoops while learning Java, and you are not already somewhat proficient with Git, then it can be a big distraction from the main goal, and you can still end-up losing your work by using the wrong command or pushing the wrong button.

[kevin Abel]

Ron and Liutauras,

I had a bad experience with a client when Ithey were using Git.    

I knew the concept from before I started the project.   I knew about the staging area and that part.  

I just could not get the commands straight.  

I remember:

git add
git command -m message
git pull
git log

I'm a QA person and they were using engineering tools.  Usually I knew half of the tools on a project, I didn't know any there.  I was lost and when I look at git I get flashbacks  

I need to take an easy going class where it goes at my speed and is friendly.

I usually put my final copy of the code in the thread on Code Ranch.   I hope that later on I can figure out where each piece of my code is in each conversation.  Also I have the code on my laptop.  I can make a google account just for storing my code as a back up.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Tim Holloway]

Tortoise (sorry I called it Turtle!) is solid and it can work with multiple version control systems, Don't forget that not all file browsers can immediately see out-of-band changes, though. It might be a good idea to manually refresh the directory before doing anything with Tortoise git. But for maximum security, use command-line git.

One thing that is very important, regardless, is to make sure that the system clock is properly set on all participating machines.

One of git's principal advantages is that it can store changes both locally and on the remote server. It is, in fact designed with the idea that you might do lots of local saves, then periodically (say once a night or so), push changes to the remote server. That's invaluable for people like our own Devaka Cooray, who during last year's turmoil was often not connected to the Internet, and in many cases was running off solar/battery power.

ZIP is a good quick snapshot, but it lacks long-term history in case you really messed up and need to back out to 3 weeks ago, so git is much better overall. I also have nightly backups I can pull from, and I highly recommend that.

Here are the critical git commands:

git init . -- Initializes the current directory and its children with a project-local git archive (.git directory). Note the "." argument, which indicates that the archive goes in the current directory.

git add file(s) -- Add selected file(s) to git version control. Until you add them, git will not support them. You can add an entire director(ies) and/or single files.

git commit -m "Comment" file(s) -- commit latest changes to the local git archive. or use "-am" instead of file list to commit ALL outstanding changes

git push -- push all unpushed changes to the remote archive

Second-tier stuff:

git clone url -- pull a project from the indicated server , create a directory locally, and store the project in it with a local archive pre-initialized for the project.

git pull -- pull latest changes from the remote archive. You may need to push or merge to make it all work. This is for when multiple people are working on a project.

I just checked my Android Studio edition of Intellij, and when you create a project from scratch, it has no version control of any kind, except maybe for IntelliJ's local change history (Eclipse has that, and I'm pretty sure so does IntelliJ).

So to get it into git, go to the VCS menu and select the top option: "Enable Version Control Integration..." That brings up a dialog that allows you to select what version control software you want the project to be supported by, and it's where you'd select "git". Setting that will alter the VCS menu to be a GIT menu.

You can then use the GIT menu to do common git functions, including attaching to a remote git server. There's a special menu just for GitHib, in fact. The Git Commit menu (Ctrl-K) should bring up a dialog that lists the files that are uncommitted as well as those that are not under version control.

Intellij's Git push also check to see how dirty the project is, and gives the option of cancelling the publication of changes if errors are present. Git is an "all-or-nothing: commit, so you won't end up pushing out fragmentary crud unless you force it to.

Git is by far the most powerful of all the change management systems I've ever encountered and it has many obscure features I hope I never have to learn what they're for. It's also occasionally confusing, especially for tasks like abandoning selected local changes, which isn't as simple as you'd think. But it can be very rewarding.

[kevin Abel]

Tim,

I used ctrl+K.  I did a commit with a comment.  

I looked in the directory of the Java project and see the .git file.

I should be connected to the github server if I set it up correctly.     How do I get the local .git to synchronize with github?  

How can I see what is on github?   Once I synch I can take a look by goto github and see if I can find it.

Is there a way to see what is on github from inside of Intellij?

Thanks,

Kevin

[Tim Holloway]

Use the "git push" command to push your changes to GitHub. This is NOT a sync, though! It only pushes your changes to the server and does not pull any changes made by others to the server, and if there are conflicts, then the push will fail and you'll have to merge the server-side changes to your local copy of the project before you can push.

To get server-side changes, use "git pull". It will update your project with the latest changes from GitHub. Again, this is not a "sync" you have to pull, merge (if needed) and push to get an actual sync.

To view Github, the easiest way is to use your web browser.

[kevin Abel]

Tim,

VCS -> git dropdown -> push  -> Define remote link -> Name and URL fields.        I don't know what it is asking for here.

I logged onto github.   I'm looking around for a  Name and URL.   Maybe it wants something on my remote PC.  

Kevin

[Tim Holloway]

The URL is the URL of the project on github. For example, on my own git repo, the URL https://gogs.mousetech.com/mtsinc7/gourmetj-springboot will show you my Recipe Manager webapp project (the userid here is "mtsinc7"). The name is the name to be associated with that particular URL, since you can connect more than one remote server to a given git project. Typically, it will be "origin".

[kevin Abel]

I logged on to my github and here is a sample URL.   It is a file in the src file.  




https://github.com/bklabel/NCL/tree/master/src/Scenario_ichi_bdd/feature

Do I take the starting part and add something at the end where Intellij is asking for the URL
https://github.com/bklabel/NCL/tree/master/src/THIS_IS_THE_NEW_LOCATION

??  

Thanks,

Kevin

[Tim Holloway]

kevin Abel wrote:I logged on to my github and here is a sample URL.   It is a file in the src file.  




/tree/master/src/Scenario_ichi_bdd/feature

Do I take the starting part and add something at the end where Intellij is asking for the URL
https://github.com/bklabel/NCL/tree/master/src/THIS_IS_THE_NEW_LOCATION

??  

Thanks,

Kevin

The project URL, which is the URL that you tell git to assign to "origin", is https://github.com/bklabel/NCL - actually, I think that last part ends with ".git", but that may be just for my projects. The URL itself consists of the site address (github.com), your account ID (bklabel) and the project ID (NCL, or NCL.git).

You can use the https://github.com/bklabel/NCL/tree/master/src/THIS_IS_THE_NEW_LOCATION in a web client to look at THIS_IS_THE_NEW_LOCATION, but you wouldn't use it as a git target. The target is not a file or sub-directory, it's the project directory. As I mentioned, git is atomic and it updates everything at once.

There is an abilirty to do sub-projects in git, but it's messy and you don't want to go there at this stage.

[kevin Abel]

As I am creating a new file ( a class in my case), and I save it a git window appears asking if I want to add it to ???(I forgot the words).  I click on the Yes button.    

I went to github and don't see anything there.   Do I need to commit and push to github or something like that?

Thanks,

Kevin

[Tim Holloway]

Yes, Git does not automatically push anything nor does it automatically pull. It doesn't automatically anything in fact. To add new file(s) directories to a git project you must do a "git add". You IDE may highlight files not under git controls. To commit changes to the local git repository, do a git commit. Then push, because uncommitted changes don't push. Some IDEs may support commit+push, but in raw gir those are 2 separate commands.

[kevin Abel]

Tim,

I opened github and created a new place(I don't know what to call it) .   Github gave me a URL.    

I used it in Intellij for the URL.  

I did an add , commit and push.  

I didn't see the file in github.   I saw other files that I may have saved (somehow) to git.  The names are Pagexx  with numbers and thats what I have been attempting to save to github. I must have accidently been successful.

I just created a new project in Intellij  (IJ for now on)

I did the add.  

On the commit is said that IDEA IJ is doing something in the background and should I wait or Continue.   I don't know what it is asking to wait for.

[kevin Abel]

It says :
Code analysis cannot be performed while IDEA updates the indices in the background.

It has buttons for wait and continue.

Kevin

[kevin Abel]

Tim,

Git is starting to work for me.  

I had to connect Intellij to Github.  I did that part a week or more ago.

I make a place for a file to go in Github.  I do this by going into github and creating a new location (container??)  
I copy the URL.

in Intellij:
I use the VCS dropdown to
git add
git commit
git push

Hey... I go back to git hub and I see my code.  

It's enough for now.   It is a good way to back up my work.

When I feel like taking a break from learning Java,  I can try the pull to another PC to learn that part.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Tim Holloway]

Congratulations! Have a cow!

GitHub and similar git repositories have a common directory structure (URL path) for their projects, based on the idea that projects are owned by a single user, which is generally a person, but could be an organization. The user owns zero or more projects, so the whole thing becomes a tree where the project URLs follow the form: http://gitserver/userid/projectid. For example: https://gogs.mousetech.com/mtsinc7/gourmetj-springboot, where "mtsinc7" is the userID I keep my public git projects under.

Projects, as seen from the git point of view are atomic, so that's as far down as IntelliJ can interact. The actual website, of course, allows you to wander up and down within the project, but that's read-only access.

To select and work on a project that's already in GitHub, you'd use the git clone command. The project's main page should have a button that will copy the project's git URL to your computer's clipboard so you can easily create and execute a git clone command for the project on your command line.

[kevin Abel]

Tim,
I'll need to ask about the difference between git pull and git clone.
I'm close to Page 150 on my restart of the book.
The material makes a lot more sense to me on the second pass.
Im on Page 475 out 700 on reading through to the end.
I have been studying Mandarin Chinese for 15 years and Java for half a year. They are both a fun struggle.

[Tim Holloway]

Git clone is used when you want to obtain a copy of a project from a remote git repository that you do not already have on your system.

Git pull is used once you have a copy of that project but you want to obtain the updates that others have made to it and pushed to the remote git repository.

I've been working on Japanese myself. Too much of my recent TV viewing has been anime. I figure that in about 147 years, I'll have all the katakana/hiragana characters memorized and fully 36 kanji (half of which I already learned from Chinese).

[kevin Abel]

Tim,

I'm slowly learning how to use git.  

Now I know when to use clone and pull.  Thank you.

I took a project with a company that used to do 9/11 patient scheduling for first responders.   I wanted to do well on the project because I was a HAM radio responder for the Red Cross for two miserable days. (Except that I became good friends with my friend that I met those days)

I was used to tools like UFT that came with most of the pieces all together.

The project used git, and at least 5 more tools that were stand alone and I couldn't catch on.   The manager spent a lot of time working with me.  It didn't work out.  

It left me with a fear of git and ReadyAPI.    Now I'm gradually learning git.  I'd be OK with ReadyAPI if the rest of the project didn't go so terribly.

I was curious how much Chinese you learned.  I used Pimsleur to learn to speak enough to get by in restaurants and make small talk in Mandarin.  The course didn't teach anything written.  I have been using Duolingo for three years.   Out of thousands of characters I can recognize about 100 of them.  

It's fun to see or hear Chinese words in Japanese.  The word for "use"  looks and sounds close in both.  

Thanks,

Kevin

[Tim Holloway]

I'm not familiar with ReadyAPI, so that's one trauma that I've dodged. One of the best things about git, however, is that since the real work is all done on your local machine, even if you screw everything up royally, you have ways to get back to a clean point. The server-only change management systems didn't really allow for that.

A really neat feature I wish I'd had back when I was in Corporate America was the "git stash" feature. If you're working on the next set of changes to a system and the production system blows up and needs immediate attention, you can tell git to "stash" the work you'd been doing, fix the problem, commit the fix, then pull your work back from the stash. That way you don't have to have made a separate branch in advance.

Just today I found out that about 60% of modern Japanese is stolen from Middle Chinese. I had suspected something ever since I found out that "ramen" was taken from something like "rai mein", but then you have Japanese words similar to "tai" (great), "chi" (energy), and others. Which is handy since there are fewer conflicting sounds for a given ideogram!

[kevin Abel]

I'll have to stash stash away in my memory for if I ever need it.

I have a good chance of getting some IT work unrelated to Java.   I'll slow down, but not stop learning Java if it does happen.  

I got lost in Japan about 25 years ago in a residential neighborhood.   The streets don't have names and there are no addresses.   I didn't know what to do so I went into a lumber yard and said to a worker.  Su mee ma sen.  Dian wah wo doko deska?    The man handed me his phone and I called my friends to rescue me.   Now I see dian wah in Mandarin.

For a while, around 20 years ago, I started hearing people use a new English word "scowtch".  As in these pants can use a scowtch more room.  I think it started from "sco shi"  in Japanese.  Now I don't hear anyone use it anymore.

I'm reading an example of a submarine game in the Heads First Book.  It is letting me see an example with a bunch of objects working together.  

Kevin  

[Tim Holloway]

Just about any IT project can benefit from git.  So it's well worth study and practice.

I have not been to Japan, and at the rate I'm going, probably never will, alas. Doesn't stop me from having collected some useful Japanese woodworking and electronics tools, though. I actually prefer Japanese saws to western ones. Aside from lacking the general logistical skills though, I'd starve due to the fact that I can't abide fish.

Reportedly, Japanese houses are numbered, but they are numbered in the order that they were built, rather than progressing down the street like US addresses are. Not only does my house have a number (and it's even because I'm on the North side of the street), but the lamppost out on the property line between my house and my neighbor is numbered, as is the power transformer box 2 houses down.

Of course, having a house number and having a visible house number are two different things, so I don't know about that.

[kevin Abel]

I should know more qbout my contract soon.  I will lower my Java, Mandarin and git learning to as low as a level as I can without stopping once work begins.

30 years ago, in NJ,  I ate sushi that had  parasite. It multiplied and I wound up in the ER.  My Dr. gave me two de-worming pills and I recovered. The symptoms were constant sweating and needing to drink a gallon of water at a time.  Also a fever for hours or days at a time.

I'm around page 147 in the HF book finishing the submarine example.  I'm reading around Page 460 about working with the GUI.