Github and Git Cola GUI combination make VCS easy to manage, fun and productive. As stated in a previous post, Github doesn’t have an official UI app for Linux.

That is not a problem as many Linux users are very familiar with the terminal, so using a GUI app for managing the code on Github would not be their first choice. Nevertheless, there are many GUI apps on Linux for managing Git repositories but usually, they are ugly :)

The following tutorial is a Step by step guide for Github management with Git Cola GUI. It will help you understand how you can migrate from terminal to a GUI app. So if you are already familiar with git in terminal then this tutorial is for you! If you are not yet familiar wit Git and Github and you want to jump start, you should definitely read this: git – the simple guide: No deep shit ;)!

Github with Git Cola GUI

If you have ever worked with git you may have been working with the same workflow. Every step in this tutorial has an equivalent terminal based git command

1) Install Git Cola GUI through Software Center or through terminal:

sudo apt install git-cola

2) Copy the repository link from your Github repository

2) Launch Git Cola and paste the link.

In terminal, it’s equivalent of:

git clone /github/repo/link.git

3) You can edit your preferences by clicking Edit menu were you can customize your settings like email, username, prepared editor etc.

In terminal it’s equivalent of:

git config --global user.name "John Doe"

4) Now edit some files inside your local repository clone and then hit the refresh Rescan button on Git Cola.

In terminal, it’s equivalent of

git status

git diff

5) Now once you save your edits, hit Stage, Comment on the changes and then Commit these changes:

In terminal, it’s equivalent of

git add filename

and then

git commit -m "Some message"

6) You can also Tag your changes to create versions by clicking Actions menu –> Create Tag

In terminal, it’s equivalent of

git tag -a v4.5.6 -m 'my version 4.5.6'

7) Now you can upload (push) your changes and versions (tags) to your GitHub account.

In terminal, it’s equivalent of

git push origin master

and your tag with

git push origin v1.0.4

8) Go to your Github page to see your changes and your tags

Hopefully, this tutorial will be useful for you. Please leave a comment if you have any feedback. Do you use other Linux based Git GUI apps?