GitHub.com is a cloud solution that enables College users to store, manage, version-control and collaborate on code, either publicly or privately, for no charge.  Users who have a specific need for stricter geographical security (e.g. researchers whose funder has stipulated that code must be stored on-site or in the UK) may prefer to use GitHub Enterprise.

  1. If you are not already a member of GitHub.com - Click on "How to Join GitHub.com".
  2. Join the Imperial College GitHub.com organization – Click on "How to join the Imperial College GitHub.com organisation".
  3. Start to use GitHub.com repositories by either:
    1. Clicking on "Creating a new repository" for your work in the Imperial College organisation
      or
    2. Clicking on "Move an existing repository into the new Imperial College Organisation" for moving your existing GitHub.com repositories to the Imperial College organisation.
  4. Click on "Create a new team" to Setup Teams to work on your repositories.

Working with Github at Imperial College

How to Join GitHub.com

If you don’t already have a GitHub.com user account, you can create an account here:

https://github.com/join

How to join the Imperial College GitHub.com organisation

To request access to the Imperial College GitHub.com organisation, please register your interest. Note: You must be connected to the College network by being on campus or connecting via VPN.

When you register:

  1. You will be asked to login with your College username and password.
  2. Once successfully logged in, you will be asked which existing GitHub.com user account you would like to associate with the College GitHub license.

Successful completion of the steps above will generate a GitHub.com invitation via email to join the College Organisation. Upon acceptance of this invitation you will be able to work with your repositories under the College license as detailed here.

If you do not have an existing github.com user account you can create one, free of charge, click here.

Creating a new GitHub.com repository

Once your membership of the Imperial College organisation is confirmed:

1. From your GitHub dashboard click the plus symbol (+) in the top right corner and select New repository.

New Repository
2. Make sure the owner is ‘ImperialCollegeLondon’, enter a new repository name and select any other options you require, as shown below:

Create a new repository

3. Click the green ‘Create repository’ button and your new repository will be created.

Repository

Create a new Team

Once you have created a new repository it is advisable to create a Team within GitHub.com to allow you to grant access permissions to other users. If those users are part of the College already, you will be able to add them using the method below. If you want to invite users external to the College, please log a job with the ICT Service Desk providing the exact Github user name and we can invite them on your behalf.

To create a Team:

1. Sign in to GitHub.com and open your Imperial College London repository page in GitHub.com (eg https://github.com/ImperialCollege/cmtest1)
2. Click the Settings tab  and select the ‘Collaborators & teams’ option
3. Click the ‘Create new team’ button  and complete the details for the new team:

Create a new team

Enter the details for your team and then click the green ‘Create team’ button.
4. Once your new team has been created you can add any number of internal team members as long as they are part of the College. If you wish to add an external user, please log a request with the Service Desk providing the exact Github user name. 

Add team members
5. Click into the ‘Add a person’ box to add new team members. You can type the required GitHub user account(s) and you will be shown a list of matching users.  Select the user you require to add them to your team.

Add a personBy default, Team Members will have Read access to the chosen repository, this can be changed by clicking the ‘Read’ button and choosing the required option for the drop-down list:

Repositories write accessTeams can be added to any number of repositories using this method.

Move an existing repository into the new Imperial College Organisation

  1. Instructions for transferring a repository can be found on the GitHub website on the About repository transfers page and on the Transferring a repository page.

      If you are working remotely you will need to be connected to the Imperial College VPN when you do this.  See instructions for setting up a VPN connection.

   2. Make sure you transfer your repository to the ‘imperialcollegelondon’ organisation or to one of your own organisations which is already covered by the College GitHub license facilities

Alternative method of applying for the Imperial College GitHub license discount

Providing you, as the GitHub.com Organisation owner, have an Imperial College ‘@imperial.ac.uk’ email address registered against your Github.com User profile then you can apply to GitHub for a discount for your organisation(s) at:

https://education.github.com/discount_requests/new

You will be asked to choose which email address on your GitHub account you will be applying with. Applying with a profile which has a College mail address will have the College license applied to that organisation and the fees will be waived.  The College email address on the your GitHub.com profile must be an ‘@imperial.ac.uk’ address and not an ‘@ic.ac.uk’ address however it does not need to be the primary email address.