Guide: Download Files From Github: Tips and Tutorials
If you’ve ever used Github before, you know it’s not immediately obvious how to download files from the platform. It is one of the more complicated platforms as it is not intended for direct file sharing directly, but for development. Granted, one of the great things about Github is that all public repositories are open source and people are encouraged to contribute – there are private repositories, but these are generally used for development purposes within companies that don’t want their code seen by the public. However, Github still handles file downloads differently from other places. So if you’re not quite sure how to download project files (or entire projects) from Github, we’ll show you how. Let’s start.
Download a file
Most public repositories can be downloaded for free even without a user account. This is because public repositories are considered to be open source codebases. That said, unless the codebase owner ticks a box otherwise, their codebase can be downloaded to your computer packaged in a .zip file.
So if you go to a public codebase – like this one Tip Calculator I built – you will see that in the top right corner is a green button that says Clone or download. Click the button, then select from the drop-down list Download ZIP. All files are downloaded to your computer, usually in your Downloads folder. Then open your Downloads folder on your computer and locate the ZIP file. You want to right click on it and choose the option “Unzip” or “Uncompress”, then select a folder where you want the files to end up. Finally, navigate to that selected folder and you’ll find all those Github files we downloaded there! That’s a pretty small codebase, with only a few files in it. If you go to Wes Bos’s JavaScript 30 repository on Github, you will find that – since it is a public repository – it can be downloaded the same way.
There is a better way to “download” files
While the way we have outlined is simple and straightforward, it is most optimal for viewing the code files, not for experimentation. If you plan to download Github files to experiment with, the best way is to ‘split’ the project. A fork is simply your own copy of a repository. Forking a repository has a number of advantages. It gives you your own copy on your Github account that you can freely experiment with changes without affecting the original project. For example, you can find a bug in my Tip Calculator or you want to add your own calculator features. So you can be my Tip Calculator, make a copy on your Github account. Here you can fiddle with and experiment with the code without affecting the original project as this would be your copy or ‘fork’. Usually forks are used to either propose changes to someone else’s project, such as fixing a bug or adding a feature as we said. So how do you fork a public repository? It’s actually quite easy. Before we get started, you’ll need to create a free Github account, as you’ll need to keep your fork somewhere. You can go to www.github.com and do it right now.
After creating your account, you can split a public repository to your account. For example, you can go to the public repository for Wes Bos’s 30 days of JavaScript training and in the top right corner you will see a button that’s what Fork says. Click on the button. It may take a few seconds to a few minutes, but Github will then clone or “fork” that project into your own GitHub account. When it’s done, the project will immediately be listed under your Github username. To verify this, you can click on your profile icon in the top right navigation bar and then select the option that says Your warehouses. In your list of repositories you should see the JavaScript 30 codebase. Now you can change and experiment with the code, and it will not affect the original owner’s project files. If you change some code, fix a bug, or add a new feature, you can create something called a “Pull Request” where that change can be discussed. If the original project owner likes the change – and it works properly – it can be merged into the original codebase as production code.
Closing
As you can see, downloading files and entire projects from Github is actually quite easy. In just a few minutes, you can download an entire project to your computer or even have it split to your own Github account. It doesn’t take much to fiddle with the code in your fork to see what affects, and you might even be able to make your first pull request in the end! Have fun coding!
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