Make a copy of an existing repository, and link your original to it so the two can share pages.
In Level 5 you will learn the ancient art of cloning: a command that makes a duplicate copy of an entire scrapbook.
Think back to Level 2. When you ran git init, it initialized a totally new, empty binder. What I did not tell you back then is that there is another way to get a scrapbook: cloning an existing one.
A clone in Git is a duplicate copy of an already existing repository. Kind of like an evil twin, but friendlier.
git init is like starting fresh with an empty binder. git clone is like copying a scrapbook that you or someone else already started. Unless you start a brand new project yourself, you will most likely join a team that already uses Git on an established project, and cloning downloads an exact copy of their scrapbook so you can jump in and start working on it too.
git clone <url> <dest>
The <url> tells Git where to find the scrapbook you want to clone. It is most often a web address, like one from GitHub, but it can also be a path to a scrapbook on your own computer. The second part, <dest>, tells Git where on your computer to put the copy.
What you are about to do is not the most common use case, but it is great practice: you will clone your current scrapbook, containing everything you have done so far, into a folder called scrapbook-copy right next to it. A dot means "this folder", and .. means "the folder above this one".
Off you go, then:
git clone . ../scrapbook-copyYou just cloned the scrapbook you have been working in. The copy has the same three pages, with the same commit IDs and everything.
Does that make sense, or are you stumped? Do not worry, it will all be clear soon. For now, just know that you have a duplicate of the repository, which we will use for some fun stuff going forward.
Now that you have two repositories, you need a way to tell them apart. Call the original your local repository: the one you code in and make commits in. Call the copy the remote repository, even though in this exercise it is just another folder on the same computer.
Think of the remote as the official family scrapbook that everyone can see, and your local copy as the one on your desk.
Even though you created the copy, your original does not know it exists. You need to link the two, so you can send updates back and forth between your local scrapbook and the shared one. That is the job of git remote:
git remote add <name> <url_or_path>
git remote add tells Git you want to link your local repository to a remote one. <name> is a nickname for that remote, and <url_or_path> is where it lives. The nickname almost everyone uses is origin, but you could pick anything. The same command has siblings: git remote rename <old> <new> changes the nickname, and git remote remove <name> drops the link.
Link the two under the usual nickname:
git remote add origin ../scrapbook-copyYour local repository is now linked to its remote doppelganger under the name origin. Nothing moved: this is a bookmark saying "the shared copy lives over there". Level 6 uses it.
Here is the situation. Two identical scrapbooks, one on your desk and one that stands in for the family copy, and a link between them called origin. This link is the foundation of how collaboration works in Git.
You would rather call the remote family than origin. Which command changes the nickname without losing the link?
(We will keep calling it origin, since that is the name every tutorial and teammate assumes.)
The graph appears here when the first command runs. The simulations are drawn by git-sim from a real repository.
The scrapbook picture appears as the story is told.
Level 5 complete
🎉 New rank unlocked
git clone makes a duplicate copy of an existing repository. Your local repository is the one on your computer that you code in. A remote repository is the official copy that lives somewhere else. git remote add links the two, and that link is the foundation of collaboration in Git. Now you are ready to team up: in Level 6 you will see that no one has to scrapbook alone.
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