Git is a popular open source version control system used by software developers across globe. One of the most popular features of Git is its ease of use on the command line. Github is probably the most popular git based repository hosting system used by over 50 million software developers across the globe.

Over the years software developers have primarily interacted with Github making use of its rich web based interface to access repositories, raise issues and pull requests, code reviews and any number of repository administration tasks. This often has detracted from the convenience of using the command line and many companies have developed tools and GUI's making use of the rich API's Github provide to preform various tasks.

Over the years GitHub have also released several command line tools to help address the typical developer use case of working mostly using the command line. The most popular of which was the GitHub Hub which helped software developers use Github from the Command line.

What is Github CLI?

GitHub CLI provides an easier and seamless way to work with GitHub using the command line. It was introduced as a beta in February 2020, and GitHub CLI 1.0 has been released in September 2020.

The new gh command line command is GitHub on the command line and brings pull requests, issues, and other GitHub concepts to the terminal next to where you are already working with Git and your code. It reduces context switching and enables developers to script and create their own workflows more easily.

GitHub CLI is available for repositories hosted on GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server 2.20+, and to install on

• Linux
• macOS
• Windows

It's free and open-source software released and maintained by Github.

How to install GitHub CLI on Linux

In order to install Github CLI on Debian/Ubuntu Linux you can use the Apt Package Manager but you will first need to add a reference to the package repository.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key C99B11DEB97541F0
sudo apt-add-repository https://cli.github.com/packages

Before you install the Github CLI it's probably best to ensure you have Git Installed

Once the repository links have been added we can use the apt package manager to install the Github CLI

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gh

Authenticate the Github ClI

Before we can actually start exploring and using gh it is best to Authenticate with it. There are a couple of ways to login using the the CLI you can use your username and password combination, but my personal preference is to make use of the Personal Access Token.

You can generate a new Personal Access Token by visiting Personal Access Tokens on your Github Settings page

Once you have created and made note of your Personal Access Token, you can use the gh auth login and follow the prompts choosing your preferred options.

Once you have authenticated using gh you can now start using it to access and accomplish all manner of common Github tasks you could only previously achieve making use of the Web Interface or other third party applications.

In How To Create A New Github Repository Using The Terminal we illustrated how to make use of the gh to create new Github hosted repository from the command line. This is a great use case for the Github CLI, however obviously it is capable of so much more and will become one of your favourite tools as you become more familiar with it.

How to enable Github CLI autocomplete.

The Github CLI comes with a number of really useful commands and as is the way with many command line utilities remembering and learning these commands can be quite difficult. The Github CLI comes with a great online Github CLI manual and you can get help for each command if you use --help on each command. i.e. if you want to get additional information regarding repo command you can simply use gh repo --help

You can also add an additional help feature to Github CLI by enabling the autocomplete functionality. Which will enable you the enter the name of the command and then TAB TAB to display the list of options associated with the command. To do so you just need to add the following line to your ~/.bashrc

eval "$(gh completion -s bash)"

Once added you can now open a terminal window to get the autocomplete type gh repo, then press tab twice. It should show you four different commands you can append to the current repo command.

Github CLI Command Structure

The gh command structure is tree-like and fairly easy to remember. There are basically two levels of commands;

Level 1

The first level consists of 6 commands

• config
• repo
• issue
• pr
• gist
• credits

Level 2

Each command enables you to specify the operation you would like to preform such as create, view or list etc.

The online Github CLI manual provides detailed explanation of all the options available per command basis.

Github Repository Commands

The gh command simplifies the process of cloning a repo and now you only need to provide the owner/repo name combination.

For instance, if you want to clone the repository for this website, the command is simply:

gh repo clone threenine/geekiam

Forking a repo is just as easy

gh repo fork threenine/geekiam

During the forking process, the tool will ask you if you want to clone as well. If you say “yes”, it will do the cloning, set up the remote upstream branch and perform an update for you automatically.

Configure Github CLI to use SSH

The first configuration setting you're most likely going to want to set once you have installed the Github CLI is to always ensure it makes use of SSH for all operations. To do this is fairly easy and we will make use of the gh config command to do so.

 gh config set -h github.com git_protocol ssh

Conclusion

The Github CLI is a great addition to your developer toolbox, and really simplifies your Day to day interaction with Github without ever having to leave the Terminal Window or opening a browser.