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28 Mar 2024 10:34:33 EDT (-0400)
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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 2 Oct 2021 20:10:01
Message: <6158f4d9$1@news.povray.org>
I have never been fluent with version control systems, but everybody is
saying it's the only way to go, with one website going so far as to
insult visitors who don't use one.  Here, the consensus is that it's the
easiest way to contribute to the POV-Ray project, so I decided to dive
in. I am becoming more befuddled by the day.

I think I've seen enough tutorials to learn the basics of Git, and I've
installed Git-Cola because I need an easy visual reference for what's
going on. I am forcing myself to have faith that I will get a feel for
Git as I continue to use it.

But now I've run into a second problem, which has dogged me since I got
my new computer, and is preventing me from pushing my modules to GitHub:
security.

When I connect to a new Wi-Fi, KDE opens up a wallet and asks for my
credentials.  On my old system, all I did was supply a password, but now
it's asking me to create a new one.  The last time I had to do this was
in 2013; best I figure is some hidden data from my old system didn't get
copied over.  But I don't remember what I did 8 years ago.

It asks me to choose between classic, blowfish (whatever that is) and
GPG (whatever that is), for better protection.  I choose GPG, and am
immediately told that my system has no keys suitable for encryption, and
to please set up at least one encryption key.  I search the Web for how
to set up a GPG encryption key, and end up thoroughly confused.  I
remember, years ago, trying to learn PGP, and I never understood that
either.

But I've been able to get by, by cancelling out and typing in passwords
when necessary--which turns out to be not often.  So it was when I tried
to push a local project to GitHub using Git-Cola.  I got exit status
128, with a message that password authentication was removed on August
13, 2021, and to use a personal access token (PAT) instead.

I followed the supplied GitHub link, which had, among other things, the
timeline for the policy change.  They announced it in July 2020, which
should be plenty of warning... except that I had no GitHub account back
then.  The timeline entry for "today" was that I would get an email.  So
I checked my email for messages from GitHub, but all I found were the
signup confirmation messages--dated August 13, the same day that they
discontinued the passwords!  (And my gym instructor is trying to
convince me that there is a god because of all the wonderful
coincidences in her life.)

I followed the link explaining how to set up a PAT, and ran into two
problems.  First was to give my token a descriptive name.  I don't even
know what's going on!  How am I supposed to describe it?  Then it says
to select the scopes, or permissions, to grant the token.  Now I'm
stuck.  Not only am I not sure what to check and what not to check, but
the one suggestion given (repo) is to access repositories from the
command line.  But I'm not using the command line, I'm using Git-Cola.

I cannot find any instructions on how to use a PAT with Git-Cola.  Its
user interface is bleakly sparse, and there is no help feature that I
can find.  Its online documentation is almost as sparse; it basically
tells the user what they already know.  Web searches on "git-cola
personal access token" are disappointingly unhelpful.

So, all you who have been using Git-Cola since August 13: how is it done?

Is my life getting easier yet?

Please don't ask me to use the command line. I cannot remember the CLI
options from one hour to the next.


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From: Bald Eagle
Subject: Re: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 3 Oct 2021 14:30:00
Message: <web.6159f615505a3a0d1f9dae3025979125@news.povray.org>
Cousin Ricky <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:

> Is my life getting easier yet?

No.

And this is a perfect example of why complicated things get ditched, and why
complicated/complicating things should never be made mandatory.

I'm a fan of redundancy, having things on hand "just in case", and having the
option of nine different ways of accomplishing the same task.

I never got PGP either, and don't know anyone who uses it.


I applaud your efforts and determination.   Hopefully something, somewhere will
'click' and things will start going a lot more smoothly for you.  Fingers
crossed.


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From: Kenneth
Subject: Re: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 3 Oct 2021 21:00:00
Message: <web.615a517b505a3a0d4cef624e6e066e29@news.povray.org>
Cousin Ricky <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:

>
> I think I've seen enough tutorials to learn the basics of Git, and I've
> installed Git-Cola because I need an easy visual reference for what's
> going on.

Not that I know *anything* about this stuff, but...

On the Wikipedia page "Comparison of Git GUIs", it lists 50+ apps there, or
whatever they are. Perhaps there is another easier-to-use (and 'visual') tool
than git-cola? It's workings sound like a nightmare to fathom, from your
description.

I don't use any kind of 'credentials manager' -- whatever that is! If I even
understand it's use, I have all of my passwords on pieces of paper(!) instead,
in a single place on my desk, and just enter them when I have to (or memorize
them.) I simply don't trust putting that kind of info anywhere on my computer or
in the cloud. But the world's computer infrastructure is becoming more and more
invasive about this stuff-- I'm sure that *everything* about me is probably
already available somewhere, to a determined hacker. :-[


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From: jr
Subject: Re: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 4 Oct 2021 03:30:00
Message: <web.615aac61505a3a0d5bd1b3ba6cde94f1@news.povray.org>
hi,
"Bald Eagle" <cre### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> ...
> I never got PGP either, and don't know anyone who uses it.

assuming you mean public key crypto in general, rather than "Pretty Good
Privacy" the product.  you do use "it", even if transparently, every time you
use 'apt' to install something for instance (packages are/should be "signed").


regards, jr.


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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 4 Oct 2021 17:27:33
Message: <615b71c5$1@news.povray.org>
On 2021-10-02 8:10 PM (-4), Cousin Ricky wrote:
> [snip]

I figured out that you copy and paste the PAT into the password field
when you push to GitHub.  And it's gotta be either a paste or a
credentials manager, because I'm not going to type 40 characters from a
piece of paper.

And this was where I learned that I know less about Git than I realized.
 In fact, I'm beginning to suspect than a month and a half of trying to
learn Git has been as effective as catching water in a sieve.

Following an online 3rd party tutorial (and it has to be 3rd party,
because documentation sucks), I created a remote repo on GitHub, added a
short description and a license, and gave the URL to Git-Cola.  But when
I tried to push, I got this message:

----------[BEGIN MESSAGE]----------
"git push" returned exit status 1

Have you rebased/pulled lately?

Pushing to https://github.com/CousinRicky/POV-AndroidRobot
To https://github.com/CousinRicky/POV-AndroidRobot
 ! [rejected]        main -> main (non-fast-forward)
error: failed to push some refs to
'https://github.com/CousinRicky/POV-AndroidRobot'
hint: Updates were rejected because the tip of your current branch is behind
hint: its remote counterpart. Integrate the remote changes (e.g.
hint: 'git pull ...') before pushing again.
hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for details.
-----------[END MESSAGE]-----------

So I tried git pull:

----------[BEGIN MESSAGE]----------
"git pull" returned exit status 128

POST git-upload-pack (294 bytes)
From https://github.com/CousinRicky/POV-AndroidRobot
 * branch            main       -> FETCH_HEAD
 = [up to date]      main       -> origin/main
fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories
-----------[END MESSAGE]-----------

Everything about that second message is telling me that over a month and
a half I've learned NOTHING about how Git works.  And the 'Note about
fast-forwards' in 'git push --help'?  It might as well have been written
in Arabic for all I could understand.

I was about to post to a local Facebook tech group asking for
local-project-to-GitHub tutorials or a tutorial service, but you all
know how that turned out.


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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 4 Oct 2021 17:36:45
Message: <615b73ed$1@news.povray.org>
On 2021-10-03 8:57 PM (-4), Kenneth wrote:
> 
> On the Wikipedia page "Comparison of Git GUIs", it lists 50+ apps there, or
> whatever they are. Perhaps there is another easier-to-use (and 'visual') tool
> than git-cola? It's workings sound like a nightmare to fathom, from your
> description.
No, I think the root of my problems is not understanding Git.  A user
interface makes it easier to use, but it can't make me understand what's
going on.

Just like using an automatic transmission doesn't help if you don't have
a roadmap to your destination.


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From: Jim Henderson
Subject: Re: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 4 Oct 2021 19:01:09
Message: <615b87b5$1@news.povray.org>
On Mon, 04 Oct 2021 17:27:33 -0400, Cousin Ricky wrote:

> On 2021-10-02 8:10 PM (-4), Cousin Ricky wrote:
>> [snip]
> 
> I figured out that you copy and paste the PAT into the password field
> when you push to GitHub.  And it's gotta be either a paste or a
> credentials manager, because I'm not going to type 40 characters from a
> piece of paper.
> 
> And this was where I learned that I know less about Git than I realized.
>  In fact, I'm beginning to suspect than a month and a half of trying to
> learn Git has been as effective as catching water in a sieve.
> 
> Following an online 3rd party tutorial (and it has to be 3rd party,
> because documentation sucks), I created a remote repo on GitHub, added a
> short description and a license, and gave the URL to Git-Cola.  But when
> I tried to push, I got this message:
> 
> ----------[BEGIN MESSAGE]----------
> "git push" returned exit status 1
> 
> Have you rebased/pulled lately?
> 
> Pushing to https://github.com/CousinRicky/POV-AndroidRobot To
> https://github.com/CousinRicky/POV-AndroidRobot
>  ! [rejected]        main -> main (non-fast-forward)
> error: failed to push some refs to
> 'https://github.com/CousinRicky/POV-AndroidRobot'
> hint: Updates were rejected because the tip of your current branch is
> behind hint: its remote counterpart. Integrate the remote changes (e.g.
> hint: 'git pull ...') before pushing again.
> hint: See the 'Note about fast-forwards' in 'git push --help' for
> details. -----------[END MESSAGE]-----------
> 
> So I tried git pull:
> 
> ----------[BEGIN MESSAGE]----------
> "git pull" returned exit status 128
> 
> POST git-upload-pack (294 bytes)
> From https://github.com/CousinRicky/POV-AndroidRobot
>  * branch            main       -> FETCH_HEAD = [up to date]      main  
>      -> origin/main
> fatal: refusing to merge unrelated histories -----------[END
> MESSAGE]-----------
> 
> Everything about that second message is telling me that over a month and
> a half I've learned NOTHING about how Git works.  And the 'Note about
> fast-forwards' in 'git push --help'?  It might as well have been written
> in Arabic for all I could understand.
> 
> I was about to post to a local Facebook tech group asking for
> local-project-to-GitHub tutorials or a tutorial service, but you all
> know how that turned out.

It sounds like you probably need to do a rebase.  I don't know how to do 
that in git-cola, but basically a pull just pulls the changes from the 
remote repository.  A rebase "is the process of moving or combining a 
sequence of commits to a new base commit. Rebasing is most useful and 
easily visualized in the context of a feature branching workflow." (from 
https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/rewriting-history/git-rebase)

What I might be inclined to do (I work from the CLI) is:

 git stash
 git pull --rebase
 git stash pop

Stash puts your changes in a ... stash.  (I know, kinda useless self-
referential definition).  It sets them aside.  The pull --rebase does the 
rebase, basically making sure you have a clean copy of the upstream repo.  
The stash pop then re-applies the diffs that you stashed.

From there you should be able to do a commit.

Of course, if you're the only one committing to the repo, then it's 
unlikely that the remote repo is out of sync with your local copy.

It's been a while since I did anything serious with git myself, and this 
is going from memory, so it's possible I've not got it 100% correct.



-- 
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and 
besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw


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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 5 Oct 2021 21:56:08
Message: <615d0238$1@news.povray.org>
On 2021-10-02 8:10 PM (-4), Cousin Ricky wrote:
> 
> When I connect to a new Wi-Fi, KDE opens up a wallet and asks for my
> credentials.  On my old system, all I did was supply a password, but now
> it's asking me to create a new one.  The last time I had to do this was
> in 2013; best I figure is some hidden data from my old system didn't get
> copied over.  But I don't remember what I did 8 years ago.
> 
> It asks me to choose between classic, blowfish (whatever that is) and
> GPG (whatever that is), for better protection.  I choose GPG, and am
> immediately told that my system has no keys suitable for encryption, and
> to please set up at least one encryption key.  I search the Web for how
> to set up a GPG encryption key, and end up thoroughly confused.  I
> remember, years ago, trying to learn PGP, and I never understood that
> either.

A month of this computer harassing me to set up a GPG encryption key,
and I find out that GPG is not installed!  (This would explain why I
could make no sense of the instructions I found online.)  Why is an OS
asking me to use software that isn't installed?

Not only am I on the verge of a hostile divorce from Windows (this dual
boot thing isn't working out), but I'm seriously considering ditching
openSUSE and buying a computer with Linux Mint pre-installed.


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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 5 Oct 2021 22:19:54
Message: <615d07ca$1@news.povray.org>
On 2021-10-04 7:01 PM (-4), Jim Henderson wrote:
> It sounds like you probably need to do a rebase.  I don't know how to do 
> that in git-cola, but basically a pull just pulls the changes from the 
> remote repository.  A rebase "is the process of moving or combining a 
> sequence of commits to a new base commit. Rebasing is most useful and 
> easily visualized in the context of a feature branching workflow." (from 
> https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/rewriting-history/git-rebase)
> 
> What I might be inclined to do (I work from the CLI) is:
> 
>  git stash
>  git pull --rebase
>  git stash pop
> 
> Stash puts your changes in a ... stash.  (I know, kinda useless self-
> referential definition).  It sets them aside.  The pull --rebase does the 
> rebase, basically making sure you have a clean copy of the upstream repo.  
> The stash pop then re-applies the diffs that you stashed.
> 
> From there you should be able to do a commit.
> 
> Of course, if you're the only one committing to the repo, then it's 
> unlikely that the remote repo is out of sync with your local copy.

Thanks.  I think the problem was that I obediently added the description
and license, and that caused the conflict with the local repo.  I just
deleted the GitHub repo and started over.  I figure I can add the
description and license later.

I found this tutorial on YouTube.  I still have questions, but it's been
helpful.

  https://youtu.be/RGOj5yH7evk


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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Is my life easier yet?
Date: 5 Oct 2021 23:18:53
Message: <615d159d$1@news.povray.org>
On 2021-10-05 10:19 PM (-4), Cousin Ricky wrote:
> On 2021-10-04 7:01 PM (-4), Jim Henderson wrote:
>> It sounds like you probably need to do a rebase.  I don't know how to do 
>> that in git-cola, but basically a pull just pulls the changes from the 
>> remote repository.  A rebase "is the process of moving or combining a 
>> sequence of commits to a new base commit. Rebasing is most useful and 
>> easily visualized in the context of a feature branching workflow." (from 
>> https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/rewriting-history/git-rebase)
>>
>> What I might be inclined to do (I work from the CLI) is:
>>
>>  git stash
>>  git pull --rebase
>>  git stash pop
>>
>> Stash puts your changes in a ... stash.  (I know, kinda useless self-
>> referential definition).  It sets them aside.  The pull --rebase does the 
>> rebase, basically making sure you have a clean copy of the upstream repo.  
>> The stash pop then re-applies the diffs that you stashed.
>>
>> From there you should be able to do a commit.
>>
>> Of course, if you're the only one committing to the repo, then it's 
>> unlikely that the remote repo is out of sync with your local copy.
> 
> Thanks.  I think the problem was that I obediently added the description
> and license, and that caused the conflict with the local repo.  I just
> deleted the GitHub repo and started over.  I figure I can add the
> description and license later.

Damn.  I added a license and readme to GitHub, tried to pull the changes
to my local repo, and it's still giving me exit status 128.  Do I have
to do this rebase thing every time I make a change?  Why does every
simple thing have to be so freaking complicated?


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