| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Fork | A fork is a personal copy of another user's repository that lives on your account. Forks allow you to freely make changes to a project without affecting the original upstream repository. You can also open a pull request in the upstream repository and keep your fork synced with the latest changes since both repositories are still connected. |
| Branch | A branch is a parallel version of a repository. It is contained within the repository, but does not affect the primary or master branch allowing you to work freely without disrupting the "live" version. When you've made the changes you want to make, you can merge your branch back into the master branch to publish your changes. |
| Commit | A commit, or "revision", is an individual change to a file (or set of files). When you make a commit to save your work, Git creates a unique ID (a.k.a. the "SHA" or "hash") that allows you to keep record of the specific changes commited along with who made them and when. Commits usually contain a commit message which is a brief description of what changes were made. |
| repository | A repository is the most basic element of GitHub. They're easiest to imagine as a project's folder. A repository contains all of the project files (including documentation), and stores each file's revision history. Repositories can have multiple collaborators and can be either public or private. |
| Base branch | The branch into which changes are combined when you merge a pull request. When you create a pull request, you can change the base branch from the repository's default branch to another branch if required. |
| Pull Request | Pull requests are proposed changes to a repository submitted by a user and accepted or rejected by a repository's collaborators. Like issues, pull requests each have their own discussion forum. |
| Personal Account | A GitHub account that belongs to an individual user. |
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