How to Create a Pull Request on Github

Creating a New Branch

1. Open Git. If you do not already have a Git program, go to https://git-scm.com/downloads and choose and installer for the platform you are using.

   1. If you are setting up git for the first time you also need to clone or import/create a repository before contributing to it.

2. Navigate to your projects directory. Enter 'cd ' in the command line and hit ↵ Enter, where is the directory chain that leads to where you cloned or created your project folder.

   1. You can drag and drop the folder into the Git command window to automatically fill out the directory path.

3. Make sure your repository is up to date. Enter 'git pull origin master' into the command line and hit ↵ Enter. A message will appear letting you know that repository is up to date.

   1. Master is the default branch on a project.

4. Navigate to the github repository page. Open your web browser and enter your repository's unique github URL.

5. Click the 'branch:master' dropdown'. This is located in the upper left of the page and will open a list of other branches and a text box.

6. Enter a branch name and click 'Create branch' when it appears. This will create a new branch off the master branch using whatever name you entered into the text box.

   1. You can also create a branch from the command line. Enter 'git checkout branch -b ' and hit ↵ Enter, where is whatever you want your branch to be called.^{[1] X Research source}
   2. You can now use 'git commit' and 'git push' to safely make changes to your branch without affecting the main project. Making a pull request will allow others to review and discuss your changes before merging them back into the main branch.^{[2] X Research source}

7. Commit changes to your new branch. Click the Pencil icon to edit a file on the repository. Once edits are made, enter a commit message and click 'Commit' from the window below the editing area.

   1. You can also make commits from the command line. This is useful when making changes to files locally rather than on the git website. Enter 'git commit -m ' into the command line and hit ↵ Enter after making changes to a file. should be a brief description of the changes you made.
   2. Commit message text can be anything, but something here is required.