---
title: "Commit Your Work"
subtitle: "MC 451 / MC 501 · Download this into your workspace, then commit it"
format: html
execute:
  eval: false
---

## What this file is, and why it is the assignment

You just downloaded this file into your course workspace folder. It is not in the template,
so right now it exists on your laptop and nowhere else.

**Getting this file onto GitHub is the whole exercise.** When I can see
`01-commit-your-work.qmd` sitting in your repository on github.com, that proves three things
at once: your workspace is a real repository, it is connected to GitHub, and you know how to
send your work there. That is the check.

Save this file into the **top folder** of your workspace, next to `README.md`. Not in
`01_Journal/`, not in Downloads.

## What committing actually is

Two words, and people mix them up constantly.

- A **commit** is a snapshot saved on **your laptop**. It records what every file looked like
  at that moment, with a short message you write.
- A **push** sends your commits **up to GitHub**.

A commit without a push is a diary in a drawer. You need both, every time.

## Step 1 - Save the file

In VS Code, press `Ctrl+S`, or `Cmd+S` on a Mac.

**What you should see:** the white dot in this file's tab turns back into an X.

**If the dot is still there,** the file is unsaved and nothing below will pick it up. Git only
ever sees what is saved to disk.

## Step 2 - Open Source Control

Click the **Source Control** icon in the bar down the left side of VS Code. It is the one
that looks like a branching line. Or press `Ctrl+Shift+G`.

**What you should see:** a panel listing changed files, with `01-commit-your-work.qmd` among
them and a **U** next to it. U means untracked, which is git saying "this file is new to me."

**If the panel says there are no changes,** you saved the file somewhere outside your
workspace folder. Find it and move it in.

## Step 3 - Stage the file

Hover over `01-commit-your-work.qmd` in that list and click the **+** that appears.

**What you should see:** the file jumps up into a section called **Staged Changes**.

**Staging** is you choosing what goes into this snapshot. You can commit some files and not
others. Today, stage everything you have worked on.

## Step 4 - Write a message

Click the message box at the top of the Source Control panel and type something a stranger
could read:

```
Add the commit walkthrough file
```

**Write what changed and why.** Not "stuff", not "update", not "asdf". You will read these
back in November trying to find when something broke, and "update" will tell you nothing.

## Step 5 - Commit

Click the blue **Commit** button.

**What you should see:** the Staged Changes list empties. The snapshot now exists on your
laptop.

**If it refuses and asks you to configure a username or email,** open the terminal in VS Code
(`Ctrl+` backtick) and run these two lines with your own details, then commit again:

```bash
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@siue.edu"
```

## Step 6 - Push it to GitHub

Click **Sync Changes**, the blue button that appears after a commit. If this is the first
push from this folder, the button says **Publish Branch** instead. Either is correct.

**What you should see:** a brief progress bar, then nothing. Silence means success.

**If a browser window opens asking you to sign in to GitHub,** that is normal and it happens
once. Approve it and the push continues on its own.

**If it asks for a password and then rejects it,** your password is not the problem. GitHub
stopped accepting passwords for this in 2021 and wants a token instead. Let VS Code's sign-in
flow handle it rather than typing anything, and wave me over if it loops.

## Step 7 - Prove it, on GitHub

Open your repository page on **github.com** in a browser and refresh it.

**What you should see:** `01-commit-your-work.qmd` in the file list, and your commit message
next to it with a timestamp of a minute ago.

**That is the verification.** If you can see this file on github.com, you are done and you
have met the requirement. If you cannot, something above did not take, and it is almost
always Step 6.

## Doing this from the terminal instead

The buttons and the commands are the same four actions. If you prefer typing, open the
terminal in VS Code and run:

```bash
git add .
git commit -m "Add the commit walkthrough file"
git push
```

`add .` stages everything you changed. `commit` writes the snapshot. `push` sends it up.

To see what you have done so far:

```bash
git log --oneline
```

## The habit this is building

From here on, the end of every work session looks like this: save, stage, commit with a real
message, push. It takes about twenty seconds.

Do it at the end of every week at the absolute minimum. If your laptop dies in November, the
only work you still have is the work you pushed.

## If you got stuck

That is expected, and it is never because you are bad at this.

1. Close VS Code completely and reopen it. This fixes a surprising share of problems.
2. Try the step again. Some failures are a slow network, not a real fault.
3. Email me the **exact** text of the error, or a screenshot, plus which step number you were
   on. Do not paraphrase the error; the wording is the diagnosis.
4. Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30 to 1:45 and 3:30 to 5:00, Dunham Hall 1017.
   Drop in, no appointment.