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Merging base Into an Existing Repository

This guide explains how to merge the attogram/base repository into your existing project. This is useful for incorporating the base features, such as the Docker environment and GitHub Actions, into a project that has already been started.

There are two ways to do this: an easy method using the GitHub web interface, and an advanced method using the command line on your local machine.

Initial Merge

This section explains how to perform the first merge of base into your repository.

Easy Method: Using GitHub Codespaces (Web-Based)

This method is recommended if you are not familiar with the command line or do not have Git installed on your machine. It uses GitHub Codespaces, which provides a development environment that runs in your browser.

  1. Navigate to Your Repository: Go to the main page of your own existing repository on GitHub.

  2. Launch a New Codespace:
    • Click the “<> Code” button.
    • Go to the “Codespaces” tab.
    • Click “Create codespace on [your-branch-name]”. This will create a new development environment and open it in a new browser tab.
  3. Open the Terminal: Once the Codespace has loaded, you will see a code editor and a file browser. You need to open the terminal:
    • Click the “hamburger” menu (☰) in the top-left corner.
    • Go to “Terminal” > “New Terminal”.
  4. Run the Merge Commands: In the terminal, you will now run a series of Git commands. These are the same commands as the advanced method, but you are running them in the browser instead of on your local machine.
    • Add base as a remote: This tells Git where to find the attogram/base repository. 
      git remote add base https://github.com/attogram/base.git
    • Fetch and merge base: This downloads the base repository and merges it into your project. 
      git fetch base
git merge base/main --allow-unrelated-histories
  5. Handle Merge Conflicts: If there are any merge conflicts, the Codespace will highlight the affected files in the file browser.
    • Click on a conflicted file to open it.
    • The editor will show you the conflicting changes with markers (<<<<<<<, =======, >>>>>>>).
    • You can use the buttons provided by the editor (“Accept Current Change”, “Accept Incoming Change”, etc.) to resolve the conflicts.
    • Once you have resolved the conflicts in a file, save it.
  6. Commit and Push the Changes:
    • Go to the “Source Control” tab on the left-hand side (it looks like a branching icon).
    • Enter a commit message (e.g., “Merge attogram/base”).
    • Click the checkmark icon to commit the changes.
    • Click the “Sync Changes” button to push the changes to your repository on GitHub.
  7. Create a Pull Request:
    • Go back to your repository’s main page on GitHub.
    • You will see a notification to create a Pull Request from your recently pushed changes.
    • Click on it, review the details, and create the PR.

Advanced Method: Using the Command Line

This method is for users who are comfortable with the command line and have Git installed on their local machine.

  1. Add base as a Remote: First, you need to add the base repository as a remote to your local Git repository. This allows you to fetch its branches and history.

    git remote add base https://github.com/attogram/base.git

  2. Fetch and Merge base: Next, fetch the base repository’s history and merge its main branch into your project’s main branch.

    git fetch base
git merge base/main --allow-unrelated-histories
  3. Handle Merge Conflicts: It is highly likely that you will encounter merge conflicts. To resolve them:
    • Run git status to see a list of files with conflicts.
    • Open each conflicting file in your code editor and resolve the conflicts.
    • Stage the resolved files using git add ..
    • Commit the merge with git commit.
  4. Create a Pull Request: After the merge is complete, push the changes to your repository and create a Pull Request.

Keeping Your Repository Updated

After the initial merge, you can pull in future updates from base by running the following commands:

git fetch base
git merge base/main

You may need to resolve merge conflicts again, just as you did during the initial merge.

Alternative: Copying Files

If you only want to incorporate a small part of the base repository, like a specific workflow or configuration file, you can simply copy and paste it into your own project.

For example, you can copy the contents of the .github/ directory to get the latest GitHub Actions workflows.

This method is simpler than a full merge, but you will need to manually update the files if you want to get future updates from base.

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