How to let github automatically track changes of an overleaf project? - github

I'm wondering if it is possible to let github automatically track changes when I make changes to an overleaf project.

Following the Overleaf documentation, you might consider adding an Overleaf Project as a Git Submodule
Each project on Overleaf gets its own git repo, but if you want to organise several such projects into one git repo on GitHub, you can add the repo for each project as a git submodule in the usual way.
You can then push and pull each submodule repository to/from Overleaf individually and still have them collected together as submodules in the project on GitHub.
Then a git submodule update --remote would automatically update your local repo with the latest from that submmodule.

Related

GitHub - Pull changes from a template repository

I have created a Template Repository in GitHub and then created some repositories based on the template. Since they were created, there have been updates to the template that I want to pull into those repositories.
Is this possible?
On the other repositories you have to add this template repository as a remote.
git remote add template [URL of the template repo]
Then run git fetch to update the changes
git fetch --all
Then is possible to merge another branch from the new remote to your current one.
git merge template/[branch to merge] --allow-unrelated-histories
https://help.github.com/en/articles/adding-a-remote
I will link to the same location as HRK44 but my answer is very different.
https://help.github.com/en/articles/creating-a-repository-from-a-template
Although forks and templates are mentioned in the same section, they are very different.
One of the differences mentioned in the link is:
A new fork includes the entire commit history of the parent repository, while a repository created from a template starts with a single commit.
This basicly means that you will not be able to pull new changes from the template as your git histories are very different and are not based on the same thing.
If you do use the method mentioned in the accepted answer, you will have very hard manual merges that will result in changes to all of the files received from the template, even if they werent changed since the first time you created that repo from that template.
In short, creating a repo from a template (using only master branch) is the same process as:
git clone template
cd folder
rm -rf .git
git init
git remote add origin <new repo url>
git add .
git commit -m "Initial Commit"
git push -u origin master
A few other things that are not (surprisingly) copied when creating a repo from a template:
(Unless github fix this at a later point)
Repo configurations (allowed merge types, permissions etc)
branch rules
So when using this at your organization, make sure to set all repo configurations on the newly created repo.
If you want to merge changes from a template into your project, you're going to need to fetch all of the missing commits from the template, and apply them to your own repo.
To do this, you're going to need to know the exact commit ID that you templated from, and you're going to need to know the commit ID of your first commit.
ORIGINAL_COMMIT_ID=<commit id from original repo you templated from>
YOUR_FIRST_COMMIT=<first commit id in your repo>
YOUR_BRANCH=master
Next you're going to need add the template as a remote, and fetch it.
git remote add upstream git#github.com:whatever/foo.git
git fetch upstream
And finally, you need to rebase all of the commits you're missing onto your branch
git rebase --onto ORIGINAL_COMMIT_ID YOUR_FIRST_COMMIT YOUR_BRANCH
What this is doing it basically creating a branch off of ORIGINAL_COMMIT_ID, then manually applying all of the commits on your original branch, onto this new branch.
This leaves you with what you would have had, if you had forked.
From here, you can git merge upstream/master just as if you had forked.
Once you've completed your merge, you'll need to use git push --force to push all of the changes up to the remote. If you're working with a team, you'll need to coordinate with everyone when doing this, as you're changing the history of the repo.
Note: It's important to note that this is only going to apply to one branch. If you have multiple feature branches, you'll need to perform the same steps to each one.
#daniel's answer also did not work for me because of the unrelated histories problem mentioned in #dima's answer. I achieved the desired functionality by doing the following:
Copy the URL for the template repository you wish to use to create a new repository. (ex: https://github.com/<username>/my-template.git)
Use GitHub Importer to make a new repository based on the template repository.
This solves the unrelated histories problem because it preserves the entire commit history of the template repository.
You need to use the Importer because you cannot fork your own repository. If you want to use someone else's template repository, you can just fork theirs.
Then, add the template repository as a remote.
git remote add template https://github.com/<username>/my-template.git
After you make new commits to the template repository, you can fetch those changes.
git fetch template
Then, merge or rebase. I recommend to merge on public repos and rebase on private repos.
To merge
git checkout <branch-to-merge-to>
git merge template/<branch-to-merge>
To rebase
git checkout <branch-to-merge-to>
git rebase upstream/<branch-to-merge>
NOTE: When rebasing, you must
git push origin <branch-name> --force
in order to override your old commits on your remote branch. This is why I recommend to rebase only on private repos.
I approached this differently as fetch & merge was not ideal as lot of files diverge across template and downstream projects. I only needed the common elements to sync.
lets says we have the below folder structure locally:
repos
├── template_repo
└── downstream_repo
1. Now create a git patch from the parent folder (repos):
git diff --no-index --diff-filter=d --output=upstream_changes.patch -- downstream_repo/some_common_path template_repo/some_common_path
NOTE - the order of the paths matters!, downstream_repo comes first! (interpret this as "what are the changes we need to make to downstream_repo to make it same as template_repo"; look at the --name-status output, it will hopefully make sense.)
--no-index option generates git diff based on filesystem paths. Path can be a single file or a folder.
--diff-filter=d will ignore any files that are in the downstream_repo but not in the template_repo. This only applies when diffing folder paths.
You can use --stat, --name-status to see what the patch will contain.
Review the generated patch.
2. Change to downstream_repo folder and apply the patch
git apply -p2 ../upstream_changes.patch
explanation for -p<n> option from the official doc:
Remove leading path components (separated by slashes) from
traditional diff paths. E.g., with -p2, a patch against a/dir/file
will be applied directly to file. The default is 1.
Using -p2 will drop a/downstream_repo and b/template_repo from the diff paths allowing the patch to apply.
This is the reason for starting with above illustrated folder structure.
Once the patch is applied, rest of the process should be familiar.
All of these options are clearly explained in git diff and git apply official docs.
Another option is to create a patch from the necessary commits and move the patch to a new project
git format-patch -1 HEAD
Insert a patch
git am < file.patch
details are here
I ran into this same issue. I have 10+ projects all created from the same template project (react-kindling) and using git alone wasn't sufficient, as it would pull in changes to the template that I didn't want in my child projects.
I ended up creating an npm utility for updating child projects from template starter projects. You can check it out here:
LockBlocks
It's been a real life saver. Pulling changes from the template is a heck of a lot easier now.
This works too:
git remote add template git#github.com:org/template-repo.git
git fetch --all
git merge template/main --allow-unrelated-histories

Update a GitHub repository without cloning

Here's the situation, we are currently working on a project and lately we decided to upload it on GitHub. Now I made my changes and I want to push the changes onto the repository.
As far as I read, in order to make changes you need to clone the repository but that will download all files from the repository and I already have all of the source files.
I'm using GitHub desktop and I can't find any option to clone without downloading and update or create branches from my existing files. Creating a local one is an option but it needs to be uploaded as a separate repository instead of linking it to a current one.
Is there any way to push updates, create branches to the repository from my local project to an existing repository?
Your local project should already be a git repo, if you uploaded it to GitHub.
But in case it is not, switch to command-line, and do inside the root folder of your project (which should shows the same files as your remote repo):
git init .
git remote add origin https://github.com/<user>/<project>
git fetch
The fetch part will download the repo but leave your files alone.
(But do a backup still, just to be safe)
git branch master origin/master
git reset master
From there, your GitHub Desktop should show you any diff between your files and what was fetched from the repo.

Splitting GitHub releases

I just migrated an old project from an own Subversion/Trac infrastructure to GitHub
https://github.com/matteocorti/nagios_plugins
The repository contains one directory for each plugin I wrote. Each plugin is standalone and has an own version number (but the source code is in the same repository).
When I release a new plugin version I would like to have a release with just the corresponding folder (e.g., https://github.com/matteocorti/nagios_plugins/tree/master/check_updates)
Is there a way with the GitHub release feature to select which part of a repository contains the software to be released?
Another option would be to split the whole and have a repository for each plugin. This would imply that I will have to manually move all the issues/bugs and wiki pages.
Edit
It seems that the only solution would be to split the repository (a separate repository for each plugin).
How can I split a Git repository retaining the commit history?
It seems that the only solution would be to split the repository (a separate repository for each plugin).
It is, but that does not migrate wiki pages and issues.
To split a git repo while keeping the history, see GitHub page "Splitting a subfolder out into a new repository"
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/YOUR-REPOSITORY
git filter-branch --prune-empty --subdirectory-filter \
YOUR_FOLDER_NAME master
# Filter the master branch to your directory and remove empty commits
# Rewrite 48dc599c80e20527ed902928085e7861e6b3cbe6 (89/89)
# Ref 'refs/heads/master' was rewritten
The repository now contains all the files that were in your subfolder.
Note that although all of your previous files have been removed, they still exist within the Git history. You can now push your new local repository to a new repository on GitHub.
Check also "How to tear apart a repository: the Git way "
Once you have one repo per plugin, you can still register them in your original repo, as git submodules.
Edit
To push the subfolder to a new repository
git remote rename origin upstream
git remote add origin NEW_URL
git push origin master

Committing changes to branch I got by downloading zip from GitHub

I'm working on a repository that has two branches: Master, and Release1.
The branch I need is Release1. I went to the site and tried to clone it, but no matter what I did I got the Master branch cloned.
So I gave up and downloaded the branche's zip to my file system. I added it to Eclipse and worked on it.
Now I need to commit my changes. But neither the branch nor the repository show up in my visual tool.
When I try to add a local repository the visual tool tells me the folder is not a repository.
Is there a solution? I have quite a few changes on my local project and I have to commit them.
The Zip download is not a Git repository, it's only a collection of the files at that moment in time. Here's a way you might be able to get your changes into the repository:
Clone the repository properly
Copy your current files into the cloned directory
git status and git diff to check that the changes are what you expect
git commit
When you cloned the repository the first time, you were getting both branches - a Git clone is a fully copy of everything: every branch, all history, etc. The default branch is typically master. After you clone, if you want to switch to the other branch, use git checkout Release1.
What GUI are you using? When trying to clone you have to make sure you change the branch you are cloning from (usually in a drop down menu or you may have to type it in). If you can successfully clone from Master, than you should be able to change to or "checkout" Release1 branch.
Just downloading the zip, just gets you the source code and doesn't have any connection to git. To save and push your changes you will need to clone the repository and checkout Release1

Cloning a github repo into an existing project?

I have a project in Eclipse that I want to put on github, so I went to github and created the repos for them, but I want to clone them right into the folder where the files are stored in my eclipse workspace. How can I do this?
EDIT: When I try it, the github app says it can't clone because the folder isn't empty.
EDIT 2: Will this work? Changing the name in eclipse to rename the project folder, then cloning the repo to the name I want, in the workspace, then renaming the eclipse project so they merge and I can commit the new files.
GitHub has a guide explaining how to put an existing project on GitHub.
You should not clone the repository, but add the GitHub repository as a remote to a local repository you create yourself.
Go to your project folder and initialize a local repository with git init
Add and commit all your project files to the local repository. (e.g. git add . and git commit -m "message")
Add the GitHub repository as a remote. git remote add origin *github repository URL* (Verify with git remote -v)
Push your project to GitHub with git push origin master.
If you already have committed files to the GitHub repository, it is still possible.
Initialize your local repository.
Add GitHub as the remote.
Pull from GitHub.
Add and commit your project.
Push you project to GitHub
First add the remote as follows
git remote add origin <GIT URL>
Then simply do the following (MAke sure to commit any of your local files)
git pull --allow-unrelated-histories