Git Cheatsheets¶

Repo hosting:

Common Commands¶

Create a new Git repository in current directory:

git init

Or create an empty Git repository in the specified directory:

git init <directory>

Or copy an existing Git repository:

git clone <repo URL>

Clone the repository located at <repo> into the folder called <directory> on the local machine:

git clone <repo> <directory>
git clone username@host:/path/to/repository

Global Configuration:

git config --global user.name "Firstname Lastname"
git config --global user.email "your_email@youremail.com"

Stage all changes in <file> for the next commit:

git add <file>

Or stage all changes in <directory> for the next commit:

git add <directory>  # usually '.' for current directory

Commit the staged snapshot to the project history:

git commit  # interactive
git commit -m "<message>"

Or add and commit all in one:

git commit -am "message"

Fix up the most recent commit (don't do that if shared history):

git commit --amend

List which files are staged, unstaged, and untracked:

git status
git status -s  # short format

Show file diff:

git diff           #  git diff by itself doesn’t show all changes made since your last commit – only changes that are still unstaged.
git diff --staged  #  Shows file differences between staging and the last file version

Open GUI:

git gui

Displays committed snapshots:

git log -n <limit>
git log --graph --decorate --oneline

Checking out commits, and checking out branches:

git checkout <commit>       #  Return to commit
git checkout master         #  Return to the master branch (or whatever branch we choose)

Check out a previous version of a file:

git checkout <commit> <file>    #  Check out the version of the file from the selected commit
git checkout HEAD hello.py      #  Check out the most recent version

Branches¶

Branches are just pointers to commits.

List all of the branches in your repository. Also tell you what branch you're currently in ('*' branch):

git branch

Create a new branch called <branch>.

git branch <branch>

This does not check out the new branch. You need:

git checkout <existing-branch>

Or direcly create-and-check out <new-branch>.

git checkout -b <new-branch>

Safe delete the branch:

git branch -d <branch>

Merge the specified branch into the current branch:

git merge <branch>

Undo any undesired changes

Generate a new commit that undoes all of the changes introduced in <commit>, then apply it to the current branch

git revert <commit>

git revert undoes a single commit — it does not “revert” back to the previous state of a project by removing all subsequent commits.

Reset (dangerous method - erases history):

git reset

List the remote connections you have to other repositories.

git remote -v

Create a new connection / delete a connection to a remote repository.

git remote add <name> <url>  # often "origin"
git remote rm <name>         # delete

Fetch the specified remote’s copy of the current branch and immediately merge it into the local copy. This is the same as git fetch <remote> followed by git merge origin/<current-branch>.

git pull <remote>

Put my changes on top of what everybody else has done. Ensure a linear history by preventing unnecessary merge commits.

git pull --rebase <remote>

Transfer commits from your local repository to a remote repo.

git push <remote> <branch>

Pushes the current branch to the remote server and links the local branch to the remote so next time you can do git pull or git push.

git push -u origin <branch>

Typical Workflows¶

Clone a Repo¶

mkdir repos
cd ~/repos
git clone https://<url>
ls -al  <repo dir>

Add a change in the working directory to the staging area¶

git status
git add README

-A, --all finds new files as well as staging modified content and removing files that are no longer in the working tree.

git add -A
git commit -m "Add repo instructions"
git push -u origin master
git pull
ssh -p 2222 user@domain.com

Short-lived topic branches¶

Start a new feature:

git checkout -b new-feature master

Edit some files:

git add <file>
git commit -m "Start a feature"

Edit some files

git add <file>
git commit -m "Finish a feature"

Merge in the new-feature branch

git checkout master
git merge new-feature
git branch -d new-feature

Push and pull from a centralized repo¶

To push the master branch to the central repo:

git push origin master

If local history has diverged from the central repository, Git will refuse the request.

git pull --rebase origin master

Sync my local repo with the remote repo¶

git pull origin master
git add filename.xyz
git commit . -m “comment”
git push origin master

Create a central Repo¶

The --bare flag creates a repository that doesn’t have a working directory, making it impossible to edit files and commit changes in that repository. Central repositories should always be created as bare repositories because pushing branches to a non-bare repository has the potential to overwrite changes.

git init --bare foobar.git
git rev-parse --show-toplevel     # print top-level directory
git rev-parse --git-dir           # print .git directory name