Setup

Installing Git

Since several Carpentries lessons rely on Git, please see this section of the workshop template for instructions on installing Git for various operating systems.

Creating a GitHub Account

You will need an account for GitHub to follow episodes 7 & 8 in this lesson.

  1. Go to https://github.com and follow the “Sign up” link at the top-right of the window.
  2. Follow the instructions to create an account.
  3. Verify your email address with GitHub.
  4. Configure multifactor authentication (see below).

Multi-factor Authentication

In 2023, GitHub introduced a requirement for all accounts to have multi-factor authentication (2FA) configured for extra security. Several options exist for setting up 2FA, which are summarised here:

  1. If you already use an authenticator app, like Google Authenticator or Duo Mobile on your smartphone for example, add GitHub to that app.
  2. If you have access to a smartphone but do not already use an authenticator app, install one and add GitHub to the app.
  3. If you do not have access to a smartphone or do not want to install an authenticator app, you have two options:
    1. set up 2FA via text message (list of countries where authentication by SMS is supported), or
    2. use a hardware security key like YubiKey or the Google Titan key.

The GitHub documentation provides more details about configuring 2FA.

Preparing Your Working Directory

We’ll do our work in the Desktop folder so make sure you change your working directory to it with:

$ cd
$ cd Desktop