How do I add files and folders into GitHub repos?

Question

You can add files using git add, example git add README, git add <folder>/*, or even git add *

Then use git commit -m "<Message>" to commit files

Finally git push -u origin master to push files.

When you make modifications run git status which gives you the list of files modified, add them using git add * for everything or you can specify each file individually, then git commit -m <message> and finally, git push -u origin master

Example - say you created a file README, running git status gives you

$ git status
# On branch master
# Untracked files:
#   (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
#   README

Run git add README, the files are staged for committing. Then run git status again, it should give you - the files have been added and ready for committing.

$ git status
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
#   (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
#   new file:   README
#

nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)

Then run git commit -m 'Added README'

$ git commit -m 'Added README'
[master 6402a2e] Added README
  0 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
  create mode 100644 README

Finally, git push -u origin master to push the remote branch master for the repository origin.

$ git push -u origin master
Counting objects: 4, done.
Delta compression using up to 2 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 267 bytes, done.
Total 3 (delta 1), reused 0 (delta 0)
To [email protected]:xxx/xxx.git
   292c57a..6402a2e  master -> master
Branch master set up to track remote branch master from origin.

The files have been pushed successfully to the remote repository.

Running a git pull origin master to ensure you have absorbed any upstream changes

$ git pull origin master
remote: Counting objects: 12, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (4/4), done.
remote: Total 8 (delta 4), reused 7 (delta 3)
Unpacking objects: 100% (8/8), done.
From xxx.com:xxx/xxx
 * branch            master     -> FETCH_HEAD
Updating e0ef362..6402a2e
Fast-forward
 public/javascript/xxx.js |    5 ++---
 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 README

If you do not want to merge the upstream changes with your local repository, run git fetch to fetch the changes and then git merge to merge the changes. git pull is just a combination of fetch and merge.

I have personally used gitimmersion - http://gitimmersion.com/ to get upto curve on git, its a step-by-step guide, if you need some documentation and help

For Linux and MacOS users :

1. First make the repository (Name=RepositoryName) on github.
2. Open the terminal and make the new directory (mkdir NewDirectory).
3. Copy your ProjectFolder to this NewDirectory.
4. Change the present work directory to NewDirectory.
5. Run these commands
   1. git init
   2. git add ProjectFolderName
   3. git commit -m "first commit"
   4. git remote add origin https://github.com/YourGithubUsername/RepositoryName.git
   5. git push -u origin master

Note that since early December 2012, you can create new files directly from GitHub:

ProTip™: You can pre-fill the filename field using just the URL.
Typing ?filename=yournewfile.txt at the end of the URL will pre-fill the filename field with the name yournewfile.txt.

If you want to add an empty folder you can add a '.keep' file in your folder.

This is because git does not care about folders.