Git and GitHub are fantastic tools for any kind of project. As soon as you start any piece of text-based work - be it a program, a diary or a novel - it makes sense to keep version control, and to have it backed up online somewhere.
So I’m now getting into the habit of setting up a git repository for the smallest of tasks:
$ mkdir ~/projects/canvas-play && cd !#:1 # Make a new project directory
$ sublime-text index.html # do some playing around with canvas
$ git init # make a repository
$ git add index.html # add my new canvas playing around
$ git commit -m 'Played around with some canvas'
That’s great. I’ve got version control. But the real dream is to put that repository online somewhere so I can carry on working if I’m not at my computer, or I could smash my computer against the wall and not have lost my work.
The standard way isn’t that difficult. Browse to GitHub, login, click “new repo” or whatever, type a name, copy the URL, then come back to the command-line. It only takes a minute or two, but it’s kinda annoying to do that every time. I don’t like touching the mouse if I can help it.
Updated solution: Hub
After I posted my solution (below) my friend @timmow mentioned that there is an existing project that provides a whole bunch of extension commands for Github - including creating repositories and managing pull requests.
It’s called “Hub”, and to be honest it might be simpler for you to just use that rather than my solution below.
My solution
So I found this solution on StackOverflow (of course). The following command uses curl to talk to the GitHub API to create a repository:
# replace USER and REPO with real values
# but *not* the "/user/" in the GitHub URL
$ curl -u 'USER' https://api.github.com/user/repos -d '{"name":"REPO"}'
# you will be prompted for your password
$ git remote add origin [email protected]:USER/REPO.git
I decided that I was going to use this so often that I should have a shortcut to it, so I made it a git alias:
$ git config --global alias.gh-create '!sh -c "curl -u \"nottrobin\" https://api.github.com/user/repos -d \"{\\\"name\\\":\\\"$1\\\"}\" && git remote add origin [email protected]:nottrobin/$1.git" -'
Now I can augment my above process for new projects with the following:
$ git gh-create canvas-play # create the GitHub repository
$ git push -u origin master # push my repository to GitHub
I don’t know why, but this gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.