Managing Repositories

  1. Local Repositories
    1. Creating a Local Repository
    2. Deleting a Local Repository
  2. Remote Repositories
    1. Creating a Remote Repository (GitHub)
    2. Deleting a Remote Repository (GitHub)
    3. Renaming a Repository
  3. Important Documents
    1. README File
    2. .gitignore File
  4. Managing Files to be Ignored

Local Repositories

Creating a Local Repository

Creating a new local repository is easy:

git init
git add <files>
git commit -m "Message here"

This will create a master branch.

Deleting a Local Repository

If you want to delete only the Git-related information, delete the .git directory. If you want to delete Git-related information and all code, delete the directory.

In addition, if the repository is linked to a remote repository, you will need to delete that too.

Remote Repositories

Creating a Remote Repository (GitHub)

  1. Create a new repository on GitHub using the point-and-click interface. Copy the clone link e.g. https://github.com/chrischow/repo-name.git. Note that this will create a main branch.
  2. Create a new local repository using the instructions above. Note that this will create a main branch.

  3. In the local repo, move (-m) the master to the main branch:

     git branch -m master main

  4. In the local repo, add the remote repo as the origin:

     git remote add origin https://github.com/chrischow/repo-name.git

  5. Push:

     git push origin main

Deleting a Remote Repository (GitHub)

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Scroll all the way to the bottom. Under Danger Zone, select Delete this repository.
  3. Type in the repo name.
  4. Wave goodbye!

Renaming a Repository

  1. Rename the repository on GitHub from the Settings page.

  2. Set the new URL e.g.

     cd <repo-directory>
 git remote set-url origin https://github.com/chrischow/rdo-data-catalogue.git
  3. You’re done!

Important Documents

README File

It’s always a good practice to add a README to explain what the repository contains, especially if the code is to be used by others. Installation and usage are an absolute must to help users get started. An impetus/context section is optional, but useful to paint the context.

.gitignore File

Unless your project involves 100% public data, you will need to avoid pushing credentials to GitHub. Hence, it’s best to create this file upfront to prepare for that possibility. It is dangerous to commit any sensitive files even once, because that file would exist in the repo’s history.

Managing Files to be Ignored

There may be cases where you have committed some files to GitHub, and only later on realising that you no longer want updates pushed, or the files put online. You then add the files to .gitignore. However, these files will still exist in the GitHub repo. To resolve this, we remove the files from the cache.

After you have added the required files to .gitignore, use the following:

git rm -r --cached <folders/files>

Commit the changes as per normal:

git add .
git commit -m "Removed files in .gitignore"
git push origin main