Configure GitHub for Rstudio

github.R

#### 1. Sign up at GitHub.com ################################################

## If you do not have a GitHub account, sign up here:
## https://github.com/join

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### 2. Install git ##########################################################

## If you do not have git installed, please do so: 
## Windows ->  https://git-scm.com/download/win
## Mac     ->  https://git-scm.com/download/mac
## Linux   ->  https://git-scm.com/download/linux
##             or: $ sudo dnf install git-all

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

### 3. Configure git with Rstudio ############################################

## set your user name and email:
usethis::use_git_config(user.name = "YourName", user.email = "[email protected]")

## create a personal access token for authentication:
usethis::create_github_token() 
## in case usethis version < 2.0.0: usethis::browse_github_token() (or even better: update usethis!)

## Note for Linux users:
## credentials::set_github_pat() (in line 34) might store your PAT in a memory cache that
## expires after 15 minutes or when the computer is rebooted. You thus may wish to do 
## extend the cache timeout to match the PAT validity period:
usethis::use_git_config(helper="cache --timeout=2600000") #> cache timeout ~30 days

## set personal access token:
credentials::set_github_pat("YourPAT")

## or store it manually in '.Renviron':
usethis::edit_r_environ()
## store your personal access token in the file that opens in your editor with:
## GITHUB_PAT=xxxyyyzzz
## and make sure '.Renviron' ends with a newline

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### 4. Restart R! ###########################################################

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### 5. Verify settings ######################################################

usethis::git_sitrep()

## Your username and email should be stated correctly in the output. 
## Also, the report shoud cotain something like:
## 'Personal access token: '<found in env var>''

## If you are still having troubles, read the output carefully.
## It might be that the PAT is still not updated in your `.Renviron` file.
## Call `usethis::edit_r_environ()` to update that file manually.

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

## THAT'S IT!

many many thanks for your help, all works fine

This is great. Thank you! One minor suggestion. I wasn't familiar with the usethis::edit_r_environ() and kept trying to figure out how to enter the PAT in the parentheses. A comment like this might help people as clueless as me: #Run this line as is to start the editor

This was godsent
Thank you!

Thanks for the feedback @tomhanna-uh, I adjusted the comments on the usethis::edit_r_environ() bit, hope it is easier to understand now.

Awesome!

Thank you. This is an easy instruction!

You saved me having to write a poorer version for students this term. Can't thank you enough, Cedric!

Glad so many still find it helpful. And all the best with your course Robert!

Thanks a lot! Very happy to have found your advice on this, after 2 days trial-and-error... Yes, still very helpful for me as newbie :)

Very helpful, thanks!!

Glad I found this relatively early. These kinds of setups take hours sometimes. Thank you!

Under default settings on Linux, credentials::set_github_pat might store your PAT in a memory cache that expires after 15 minutes (or when the computer is rebooted), potentially leading to a great deal of frustration shortly later.

Linux users may wish to do either extend the cache timeout to match the PAT validity period

usethis::use_git_config(helper="cache --timeout=2600000") #cache timeout ~30 days

or configure one of the alternative methods that stores the PAT to disk (store or libsecret based solutions).

Thank you @grady , I#ve added a note to the gist!

@z3tt To be effective, the config change to the cache settings needs to occur before setting the PAT. (currently line 28)

Thanks @grady, I have updated the snippet aaccordingly.