Getting Started With Git and GitLab

I use GitLab to host my git repositories. Those repositories store my dotfiles, my scripts, my Suckless builds, my wallpapers, and much more. Using git and a host like GitLab makes reinstalling your OS (aka distrohopping, to you Linux users) so much easier.
REFERENCED:
► docs.gitlab.com/ee/gitlab-bas... - GitLab Basics
► www.atlassian.com/git/tutoria... - Article on Bare Repositories
► • Git Bare Repository - ... - DT's Video on Bare Repos
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FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE THAT I USE:
🌐 Brave Browser - brave.com/dis872
📽️ Open Broadcaster Software: obsproject.com/
🎬 Kdenlive: kdenlive.org
🎨 GIMP: www.gimp.org/
🎵 Audacity: www.audacityteam.org/
💻 VirtualBox: www.virtualbox.org/
🗒️ Doom Emacs: github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs
Your support is very much appreciated. Thanks, guys!

[@AQDuck]

I make my repos private because I'm ashamed of my code :D

[@ah-oc6yv]

Thank god I though I was the only one

[@censoredterminalautism4073]

I bet you think that you will do that eventually, when it's good enough to be seen by humans.

[@xijinpingpong4426]

Exactly what I thought :D

[@marcosgarcia8018]

good on you i guess doubt it's bad ive seen some pretty nasty shell code before

[@theemacsen1518]

Lol same hahaha

[@dkosmari]

I just rdiff-backup my whole home directory into my NAS. My memes folder is way more valuable than my config files.

[@l0_0l45]

I legit cried over losing memes than losing passwords when my system got corrupted.

[@engageintellect]

Thank you to the producers of this show as well as Derek. I’ve learned so much from you and love the content.

[@DistroTube]

Thanks for watching!

[@juzujuzu4555]

@@DistroTube Firefox 80 is now finally having VA-API support on Linux, making it really fast and efficient. I have heard countless people say that they would use Firefox, but it's too slow, it takes too much CPU and it drains battery, ramps up fans etc. but this is now history. Please do a video about Firefox 80, the importance of Firefox as it's the only thing that is keeping Google in check to fully own the Internet, and how it's now fast because video is accelerated on GPU.

[@thierrybo6304]

Stow + git = the perfect dot files handler.

[@marcosgarcia8018]

"I think a lot of people put learning git off for a long time" me: *sweats nervously*

[@abdullahalmasri612]

this is me until my prof told me to make a small 10 minute representation about github because i said "i know what is github! people put their code their and stuff" sweat level 100000

[@michaelkrailo5725]

Between this video and the older one on using the config alias to utilize a git --bare repo, it inspired me to dig deeper into using git and I'm real glad I did as I have put off learning version control for a long time for my other software projects. This finally got me over the initial hump of learning the basics on GitLab. There are some really good tutorials out there that fill in more of what git actually does, so I'm glad I stumbled on these videos.

[@noahwilliams8918]

Really good video DT! Concise and shows new Git users around - been looking for a video like this to help train new devs. One small amendment I'd make for security: For the SSH encryption type, these days it's a good idea to choose ECDSA because of some structural vulnerabilities found in RSA that have made it crackable with (contextually) low compute power.

[@DistroTube]

Thanks for the info on encryption. I need to update my keys then! :D

[@indigowyrm]

Thanks DT! this is a great primer on using git - well explained! I've also followed your git bare repository video and about to set it up with my dotfiles.

[@jajajajahahahahaja]

Hi DT you uploaded this right when I got off work, nice!

[@Nerdamania]

This is one of the awesome videos I am subscribed to this channel for. No polarizing bs, just a great informative tutorial. :)

[@AliensInc.]

I started using gitlab some months ago thanks to you and I found a web page that showed me how to do it but now I can't find that again so my dotfiles just laying there and by this video I thank you so I can get them back into my newly installed system. This was a perfect time to upload this, thanks DT :D

[@taidee]

A great and high quality tutorial, as usual DT, thank you.

[@marioschroers7318]

Opened an account with Gitlab by the beginning of the year. I'm not a great admirer of cloud stuff, but Gitlab is actually super useful. I keep my dotfiles, scripts, and wallpapers there. Actually, it saved me once to have my .zshrc backed up there. Sure, I tend to backup everything locally, but it also makes it easy to sync things on multiple computers without having to juggle USB devices or hard drives. I'm also about to help someone transition from Windows to Linux. I'm sure I'll make use of one or another of my dotfiles on my Gitlab repo. However, I need to learn how to use ssh, since uploading files to Gitlab using the web interface really is a big pain. Thank you for this video!

[@SneedusFeedus]

Great basics run through, seems easier than I thought

[@sssanjaya]

Thank you for taking Linux users to next level.. awesome journey learning Linux in depth

[@navneetvikramtey]

I was already doing it today, and thought will continue it at 12am, its 11pm rn so yeah good timing.

[@falenperez8690]

Thanks for the helpful information. I learn something new every day watching your videos, I'm not a computer science type of person but learn I new skills and implementations through your content. starting to practice using vim at least an hour a day

[@12Q46HPRN]

OMG! Excellent git tutorial! Thank you so much. You made this SO MUCH clearer for me, and I am sure for countless others. If you could edit the title of the video, I would recommend adding something like "Beginning Git Tutorial." Just a thought.

[@boredguy5531]

Git branch can be useful when you use multiple OS. In my case I have "dotfiles-linux" and "dotfiles-macos" branches on the same repo. When I need to reinstall any of my machines, I just clone my repo and specify the proper branch to be pulled: git clone ..., git checkout bla bla bla, you get the idea. This way everything is much cleaner for example because my VIM config on linux is different than what I have on my mac. This is only small thing I came up with when using branch, I'm sure it can be used to do a lot more useful stuff.

[@BurakCYldz]

I keep my dotfiles in a usual git directory and symlink them to the necessary locations. Also have a bash script that handles all the sym linking after a reinstall :)

[@andrewsalnikov438]

Great video, simple and clear about important things! However, as always, on this channel :-)

[@LarryDamba]

Great video, I always enjoy your videos.

[@SimGunther]

Yet another bare repo tutorial. HOW EXCITING!

[@gallitOo88]

Thanks DT nice job !

[@vwlouk2]

Great tutorial. Thank you!

[@marcs741]

good video. Thanks Derek

[@DennisvanVreeswijk]

Thanks voor the great examples

[@IvicaAnteski]

thanks Derek!

[@AnzanHoshinRoshi]

Thank you, Derek. I always have local backups, and on Dropbox and G Drive. But i've been thinking of (but not getting on with) using Github.

[@DistroTube]

Keeping a Dropbox or Nextcloud account is good too because, even if you use Github/Gitlab, there are some things that contain sensitive information in plain text that you wouldn't want in public repo.

[@MartinKuhlen]

Thanks a lot. This was very helpful!

[@harryvendryes]

Created an account at Gihub. Then discovered who owns Github. Deleted account and swam over to Gitlab. Thinking Ansible might be the best bet for my config backups, with the ability to automatically install onto any laptop connected to to the Internet. Also, the ability to automatically install programs, users etc. Looks like an amazing time saver.... after having spent an enormous amount of time setting it up :-)

[@dheerah]

Thank you so much dt !!!

[@ramonoxis]

Thank you so very much for this.

[@faye_isc]

THANK YOU !!!!!!!!! I FIIAAALLYY UNDERSTAND this

[@HaiNguyen-vu9cj]

Thank you very much.

[@vi777x4]

This video came abut 20 hours to late, after a tragic rm -rf typo. At least I learned a lesson about backups and not being trigger happy when removing larger quantities of files. :

[@kingburrito7773]

dude a couple weeks ago i forgot i was in root / and went rm -r .

[@BurgerKingHarkinian]

@@kingburrito7773 Here's another fun idea: rm -rf "$(find / | shuf -n1)"

[@TechWaltMD]

Great content. I would recommend making any repo private by default for safety. If you are writing code to share, then mark that public.

[@n0kodoko143]

Oh the timing... I just nuked my init.vim file. Silver lining I had uploaded a copy to github, 2 weeks ago, and have it to where the minimal changes over the passed 2 weeks were still in the brain cache.

[@YannMetalhead]

Good video.

[@der_kloenk]

I can recommend home-manager, it can install your Programms in the same step as dotfile management

[@SubterraneanChick]

Would have loved this back in the day when I jumped around distrowatch, clicking and d/l live & base install ISOs to burn onto CDs, then USBflash.

[@romaric6022]

thanks a lot for those very helpful videos::::!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@starnice5559]

Thanks

[@jr_Linux]

DT you'll be glad to know i finally figured it out. i got my gitlab setup atleast for starters took me awhile but something finally clicked :) i get the basics but when i went to try your other video on bare repo i got something wrong. not sure if you make a new folder and make the bare repo separate or if you make the repo like u showed in t his video and added the bare to this folder im kind of confused about that process

[@Sound_.-Safari]

@distrotube you should use the maximum size RSA ssh key of 16384. No one ever recommends this, but it but it adds tons of security at extremely negligible cost for the user.

[@jmcbri]

It looked to me that it's looking for the public key. The key you referred to is the private key.

[@user-jq8tq6fk7d]

If I'm ever migrate distro or reinstall my os, should I save the files inside .ssh? Once I copy the id_rsa.pub ssh key into GitLab, can I just run config push without the .ssh directory in my home directory? I'd also like to clarify that even said to use the key in id_rsa, GitLab recommends the id_rsa.pub instead, I'm new to using git (or "config" like in your git bare video) so I decided to use the public key like how GitLab recommended.

[@furiousfellow1583]

"I dont distro hop much these days", sounds like something a distro hopper might say Jokes aside, great video, your tutorials are a blessing for beginners who want to get into tech stuff

[@tur7le254]

for me i got some hard linking to my configs in a git directory i just have to remind myself to push them to git

[@agh0x01]

Use NixOS and you can store your whole machine's system-level configuration in one or two files and rebuild it on the same or new hardware with one command. I think Guix has the same philosophy.

[@MsDuketown]

GUIX is a sledgehammer approach. Does it support Wayland? But yeah, with Stow and skel a pretty slim Linux Desktop start. Still, GUIX and Gnome desktop might even give a more smooth experience than,. let's say KDE Kvantum + Desktop.

[@amos660]

Does anyone know if gitlab can save and store ssh keys from the cli efficiently? I had to delete 6 github accounts today for this very reason.

[@jperfection]

Git it up :)

[@thebtm]

Readme.md can be in lower case on gitlab-ce

[@syrefaen]

witch commands is the best for updating a local repo when remote master has been updated?. Rebase from master?

[@DistroTube]

Rebase is usually what you want.

You can just put a bare repo on a server and push using git over SSH. GitLab is kinda overkill if you just want a place to push your things.

[@yuvvrajkperson]

dt: I won't show my key dt: shows key 5 seconds later on the gitlab website anyway

[@starnice5559]

How much storage they give?

[@rc8467]

Hello mate there's new tilling window distro duno if u review it bit called instant os hope u can review like to no ur thoughts on it

[@rc8467]

Sorry I just looked u did review it sorry

[@gradientO]

You forgot to add _c o d e o f c o n d u c t_

[@hughhe4209]

So I just bought gitlab ultimate and hosted it on my pi4

[@AcidiFy574]

Any desktop & mobile clients for GitLab????

[@mulljacob]

How is this different or better than backing up to another disk with Timeshift?

[@jackbijou]

By default your home directory is omitted from the TimeShift backup. I think you can change this, but I have never tried it.

[@mulljacob]

@@jackbijou Yes home directories are omitted by default but it's a simple click to include them.

[@TehGettinq]

Its different because its not on a disk? Your idea implies you need another disk. Using git and github/lab i can be on a beach in north korea and access my files without bringing a disk with me.

[@mulljacob]

@@TehGettinq OK, why not a cloud service then? Doesn't Microsoft own Git so why not just buy some cloud storage from them? I'm just wondering why a normal Linux user would use Git as essentially a backup service. ..just trying to get the whole premise straight, in my head.

[@TehGettinq]

@@mulljacob you could do that but its much uglier. Like you could upload your dotfiles on google drive (i guess you meant something like that) but then you couldnt update and access them easily using your terminal. Git is simple once u understand the basics and its super convinient. But sure there are other way to do things, but someone who modifies alot of things often and wants to have these files stores remotely well git is probably the better choice.

[@OG900Aero]

Which better? Github or gitlab?

[@raptoress6131]

Great tutorial, other videos take an hour to explain the same things.

[@Emily-qy1gk]

I have distrohopped way too much without doing backups...

[@rwprime1]

I wonder if a person could fetch your wallpaper or whatever and then push it to my gitlab. In other words would that be an instance of using fetch.

[@32gigs96]

I can't be the only one that just uses github...

[@jrhaven]

I use GitHub.

[@_yuri]

only 50 million users on there you might be the only one i am afraid 😳

[@censoredterminalautism4073]

Hello, users of Microsoft Github. Tell me why you love Microsoft so much. I don't get it, but I would like to understand your mindset for scientific reasons.

[@atomskyjahid1533]

@@censoredterminalautism4073 GitHub has a huge amount of projects. The programs I use daily, such as bspwm, sxhkd, nnn, broot, picom etc., are also hosted there.

[@TehGettinq]

@@censoredterminalautism4073 we dont like microsoft but github is just more popular and has more project. You have more chances of ppl participating to your projects on github. Gitlab is (or atleast was) aimed at enterprises. It does suck that microsoft owns it now tho.

[@jackelofnar]

Probably should of been expanded for new users e.g how to recover dotfiles via stow

[@sentinel9651]

Why did you choose GitLab over other services?

[@DistroTube]

GitLab is one of the largest and most respectable...especially in the freedom dimension ( as Stallman would say). GitHub, owned by Microsoft, still has too much of its stuff closed source. I choose the more "open" solutions when it makes sense to do so.

[@Nerdamania]

could you just upload your whole .config folder to git and make it private so that no private data gets exposed?

[@amiwatchesyt]

You can modify the timeouts for the password www.linux.com/training-tutorials/beginning-git-and-github-linux-users/

[@dave7244]

If you want a truly free license you would be using the WTFPL license.

[@andref82]

Shouldn't the key placed on gitlab be the public key the id_rsa.pub , do not ever public give your private key.

[@zweitlander874]

:)

[@Tn5421Me]

> uses private repository for his dotfiles

[@majorgamer4610]

fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git

[@MyurrDurr]

you accidently showed your key on the gitlab accounts settings page

[@mithrial1]

That's the public key. There is no harm in showing that.

[@MyurrDurr]

@@mithrial1 ooohhh

[@faye_isc]

GUYS, try 0.75 speed . He sounds *SO FKIN DRUNK AND DEPRESSED* 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

😂

[@ohio2440]

I back my code up using github.

[@dabuge]

Edit the video. We can see your key made 1hour ago on 19:43.

[@ricknaam5658]

Leaking the public key isnt a problem, the private key is what is actually used for authentication and should be kept hidden.

[@folkrav]

@@ricknaam5658 true.

[@TheBlueThird]

Get into Git 😂😂...

[@ambassadorofpain1]

>2020 >still using RSA oh brother

[@ryanvelbon]

unpopular opinion: git should be learnt before learning a programming language One can practice version controlling html, yaml, markdown, txt files etc.

[@ad_sidera_virgines]

I think we shouldn't talk that much about all the git managing commands (add, push, commit, etc) to beginners who just wanna install some software. I'm not a linux/git user for a long time, and I was looking after several projects on github but all the tutorials and cheatsheets I found for git were about what I call git *managing*. It would've been way better if someone just told me "use 'git clone url' to download the repository"

[@TehGettinq]

Are you from qc? And yes agreed sometimes ressources arent too noob friendly, probably because they are written by non noobs who dont remember what it was like to learn.

[@ad_sidera_virgines]

@@TehGettinq what do you mean by "qc" ?

[@alexandershendi7428]

Well I just put .tar.gz files on that nice yellow USB pen drive that I always carry in my trouser pocket. But then I'm just a Boomer... And allergic to git to boot.

[@mihir.mishra]

Postpone JEE NEET

[@sylwesterrak9802]

!!!ALERT!!! Remove your advice. You should never ever share your private key! What you public is 'public' key. Never ever share your private key _ not in secret mode or ... anything. That's how asymetric encryption work.

[@DistroTube]

I have no idea what you are talking about. Nowhere in this video or any other video of mine have I ever said that anyone should share a "private" key. The very term "private key" suggests that it shouldn't be shared with anyone.

[@sylwesterrak9802]

@@DistroTube Maybe I'm just jumpy but you showed your .shh dir and adviced to copy content of private key to ... Someone could read it like that. Please don't take it wrong. I admire your work. Peace :-)

[@boriska91m]

Dotfiles sucks. Try Nix + home-manager

[@OveRaDaMaNt]

Kind of a useless video. Came here hoping to learn how to push the files from my home directory into my repo without git complaining about them being "outside of the repository". Only learned here that that is possible somehow but not how to actually do it.