CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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KansaiRobot
KansaiRobot

Reputation: 10022

git cloning. What am I doing wrong

It has been a little time since I did my last cloning from a repository. My situation is the following:

There is a repository in github that I want to clone into my local system. I go to the github page and there are two options for cloning: download as a zip file or open with github desktop. Let's put the github desktop aside for a while.

Now, there is another option for cloning. I go to my terminal and do git clone <address of the repository>

In both cases I do get a copy of the repository on my local system successfully but it is not a git repository (Of course I can do git init to make it one but I am not sure it is the correct procedure-therefore this question)

Of course there is no origin that link this local copy to the github repository. My goal is to have a local copy that I can pull frequently so that I can always have an actualized version of.

So my question is what is the correct procedure to clone a github repository to my local system so that I can be linked to it and can frequently pull to?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 103

Answers (1)

Dai
Dai

Reputation: 155648

The "Download ZIP" option does not download a clone, instead it only downloads the latest commit without any history (i.e. there is no .git directory inside of it).

what is the correct procedure to clone a github repository to my local system so that I can be linked to it and can frequently pull to?

Use your terminal and run git clone <address> - it will be a git repository and it will have GitHub set up as a remote (as origin). Don't forget to cd into the clone directory after it's created in order for the git command-line to work on that repo.

It's likely you can't see the .git directory because you have "Show hidden (dot-prefixed) files" disabled - you'll see it if you run ls -al to show all files.

You will see the remotes by running git remote -v - but only if you cd into the newly created repo directory.

Upvotes: 4

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