GIT Concepts & Commands Explained

Git is the free and open source distributed version control system using which you can track whatever happens locally on your computer.

I have been using Git for couple of years by now.

This cheat sheet features the most important and commonly used Git commands for easy references.

SETUP

Configuring user information used across all local repositories.

• git config --global user.name “[firstname lastname]”

set a name that is identifiable for credit when review version history

• git config --global user.email “[valid-email]”

set an email address that will be associated with each history marker

• git config --global color.ui auto

set automatic command line coloring for Git for easy reviewing

SETUP & INIT

Configuring user information, initializing and cloning repositories

• git init

initialize an existing directory as a Git repository

• git clone [url]

retrieve an entire repository from a hosted location via URL

STAGE & SNAPSHOT

Working with snapshots and the Git staging area.

• git status

show modified files in working directory, staged for your next commit

• git add [file]

add a file as it looks now to your next commit (stage)

• git reset [file]

unstage a file while retaining the changes in working directory

• git diff

diff of what is changed but not staged

• git diff --staged

diff of what is staged but not yet commited

• git commit -m “[descriptive message]”

commit your staged content as a new commit snapshot

BRANCH & MERGE

Isolating work in branches, changing context, and integrating changes

• git branch

list your branches. a * will appear next to the currently active branch

• git branch [branch-name]

create a new branch at the current commit

• git checkout

switch to another branch and check it out into your working directory

• git merge [branch]

merge the specified branch’s history into the current one

INSPECT & COMPARE

Examining logs, diffs and object information

• git log

show the commit history for the currently active branch

• git log branchB..branchA

show the commits on branchA that are not on branchB

• git log --follow [file]

show the commits that changed file, even across renames

• git diff branchB...branchA

show the diff of what is in branchA that is not in branchB

• git show [SHA]

show any object in Git in human-readable format

TRACKING PATH CHANGES

Versioning file removes and path changes

• git rm [file]

delete the file from project and stage the removal for commit

• git mv [existing-path] [new-path]

change an existing file path and stage the move

• git log --stat -M

show all commit logs with indication of any paths that moved

• git clean

Removes untracked files from the working directory.

SHARE & UPDATE

Retrieving updates from another repository and updating local repos

• git remote add [alias] [url]

add a git URL as an alias

• git fetch [alias]

fetch down all the branches from that Git remote

• git merge [alias]/[branch]

merge a remote branch into your current branch to bring it up to date

• git push [alias] [branch]

Transmit local branch commits to the remote repository branch

• git pull

fetch and merge any commits from the tracking remote branch

REWRITE HISTORY

Rewriting branches, updating commits and clearing history

• git rebase [branch]

apply any commits of current branch ahead of specified one

• git reset --hard [commit]

clear staging area, rewrite working tree from specified commit

TEMPORARY COMMITS

Temporarily store modified, tracked files in order to change branches

• git stash

Save modified and staged changes

• git stash list

list stack-order of stashed file changes

• git stash pop

write working from top of stash stack

• git stash drop

discard the changes from top of stash stack

IGNORING PATTERNS

Preventing unintentional staging or committing of files

• logs/ *.notes pattern*/

Save a file with desired patterns as .gitignore with either direct string matches or wildcard globs

• git config --global core.excludesfile [file]

system wide ignore pattern for all local repositories