What Is GitHub and How Does It Work?

Founded in 2008, GitHub is an open-source website and cloud-based service that takes a lot of the complexity out of coding. It allows teams of developers and coding experts to share ideas and processes to create innovative software. Developers can store and manage codes on the GitHub website and track changes made by others; additionally, users can merge projects with coding created by other developers and receive feedback on bugs and new features via pull requests and built-in code reviews. More than 73 million developers from in excess of 4 million organizations have used GitHub to create and maintain their proprietary software.

To fully understand exactly what GitHub is and how it works, it’s important to know the principles of version control and Git.

In essence, version control allows developers to safely work on aspects of a code base without altering the official source code. This is performed via branching and merging. The former refers to the duplication of a specific part of the source code, known as the repository. Once the appropriate changes are made and the code functions as intended, developers can merge the altered code back into the source code.

Git, meanwhile, is one of many types of open-source version control systems. Linus Torvalds created the system in 2005 to facilitate easier branching and merging functions for developers. Git predecessors like Subversion and CVS only allowed developers to make changes directly to the central repository. Through Git, developers copy this repository to their own system, make alterations on their local copy, and then upload those changes to the central server.

GitHub, then, is a repository hosting service exclusive to Git that promotes collaboration and community as well as automation and security. The website offers access control in addition to collaborative features including basic task management tools for user projects.

GitHub’s primarily functionality is forking, which is the term given to the copying of a repository from one account to another. Pull requests are notifications that allow developers to share changes they made to another developer’s code. The original developer can then merge those changes with the simple click of a button. Once a pull request is submitted, the developer of the original code can access the profile of the user who made changes and review their credentials and prior work.

Other notable features include GitHub Actions, which allow developers to enhance DevOps, optimize workflows, and set up CI/CD, among other actions, via automated events such as push, release, and issue creation. There are more than 5,000 automated actions on the website for developers to implement in their projects. Developers can also write and submit their own automation actions in GitHub’s world-class editor.

Microsoft purchased GitHub for $7.5 billion in 2018 in one of Silicon Valley’s largest strategic value deals. Two years prior, Microsoft had acquired LinkedIn for $26 billion, or 7.2 times its annual recurring revenue at the time; its acquisition of GitHub was for nearly 30 times the company’s revenue. GitLab, a competitor that provides similar services, was worth $16.5 billion when it debuted on the Nasdaq in October 2021.

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