git cheatsheet

Nowadays, git must be the most widely used source control. Although [almost] all IDEs implement it. Since git is very extensive, each IDE integrates its own set of actions. This means tha some actions will behave [slightly] differently between IDEs. Some actions will be in some IDEs and not in others, and some actions will not be implemented in any IDE.

If our IDE does not implment the action/actions we need we will have to resort to the console (or CLI). It is not uncommon to have to resort to the console, especially when things go wrong.

Since I use git a lot from the CLI, my coworkers often come to me to ask me commands or how to fix some error. Over time I have realized that some of these questions are recurring, so I have decided to leave this resume of git commands in form of cheatsheet here.

For me, the best source of git documentation is the official one.
In the git book you will find ALL about git.
There you can find more extensive information about the following commands, and other commands.
You also can find all the information in the git manual: $ man git.

In this cheatseet I will following the next conventions:

• [parameter]: It means that it is an optional parameter.

• (parameter1,parameter2): It means a group of parameters.

• *[parameter1

  parameter2]*: It means that the are optional and exclusive parameters.

• *(parameter1

  parameter2)*: It means that the are mandatory and exclusive parameters.

• $variable: It means that it a variable and should be replaced by your specific value.

Configure user settings

• git config --global user.name $name
• git config --global user.email $mail

Create a repository

• git init Creates a new Git repository in the current directory.
• git clone $repository Downloads an existing Git repository from a remote URL.

Changes

• git add (.|file) Adds files to the staging area for the next commit.
• git rm [-rf] ($file|$directory) Deletes a file or director from the staged area.
• git commit -ma $message Creates a new commit with a message.
• git fetch Retrieves updated branch information from the remote repository without merging them locally.
• git pullFetches updates from the remote repository and attempts to merge them into the current local branch.
• git checkout $branch -- $file Gets a file from a branch.
• git push [--follow-tags] Uploads local commits to the remote repository.
• git blame Shows who last modified each line of a file.
• git cherry pickSelectively applies a commit from another branch to the current branch.

Tags

• git tag [-a|-d] $tag Creates/deletes a local tag for a specific commit.
• git tag -l [$regex] Lists tags.
• git show-ref --tags Shows commits for all tags.
• git rev-list -n1 $tag Shows which commit has a certain tag.
• git push --delete origin $tag Deletes a remote tag.

Undo changes

• git checkout [file] Discard uncommitted changes
• git reset [--hard] [file|commit] Moves the HEAD pointer to a specific commit (hard removes local changes since then).
• git reset --soft HEAD~1 Undoes the last commit.
• git revert Creates a new commit that undoes the changes introduced by another commit.

Be careful with git revert

Squashing

Squashing is a technique that consists of taking n number of commits and merge them into a single commit. It’s used to keep the history clean.

1. Start an interactive rebase:

   git rebase -i HEAD~$number_of_commits

2. Mark commits for squashing:

   Change the pick keyword to squash or s before the commits you want to combine.

3. Save and exit the editor.

Stashes

• git stash list Temporarily lists uncommitted changes.
• git stash push Temporarily saves uncommitted changes.
• git stash pop $stash Temporarily applies uncommitted changes.
• git stash drop $stash Temporarily discards uncommitted changes.

Branches

• git branchLists existing branches.
• git branch $branch-name Creates a new branch.
• git checkout -b $branch-name Creates a new branch and switches to it.
• git push --set upstream $remote-repository $branch-name Create a local branch remotely.
• git checkout $branch-name or git switch $branch-name Switches to an existing branch.
• git merge Combines the history of another branch into the current branch.
• git branch [-d|-D] $branch-name Deletes a local branch. -d deletes the branch if it has already fully merge, -D deletes the branch regardless of its merged status.
• git push $origin --delete $branch-name Deletes a remote branch.
• git rebase Reapplies commits from a branch on top of another branch (potentially rewriting history).

Be careful with git rebase

Recover a deleted branch

1. Find the SHA1 for the commit of your deleted branch: git reflog

2. git checkout $SHA1

3. git checkout -b $branch-name

Repository status

• git status Shows the current state of the working directory.
• git show $commit Displays details about a specific commit
• git log [--follow $file] Shows a history of commits.
• git reflog Shows a history of HEAD.
• git diff Shows the difference between the working directory and the staging area or between commits.
• git diff stash@{0}^! -- [$file] Compares the changes in the most recent stash entry (stash@{0}) with the current working directory/file.
• git diff $branch1 $branch2 -- $file Compares the file between two branches.
• git diff HEAD^ HEAD Compares the changes between the current commit (HEAD) and its immediate parent commit (HEAD^)..

Submodules

• git submodule update --init --remote Downloads submodules.

Aliases

If you are like me, and you use git a lot from the CLI, you will appreciate the following trick. You can create aliases to group several parameters and speed up ypur work:

• git config --global alias.tree "log --graph --decorate --all --oneline"
• git config --global alias.fulltree "log --graph --full-history --all --color --pretty=format:'%x1b[31m%h%x09%x1b[32m%d%x1b[0m%x20%s'

Now, you will have available the following commands:

git tree git fulltree

Update repositories from a bash script

When I make my backups, I want to save an image of all my repositories with the latest updates of all its branches. I run the following command from a bash script (it will work from any directory) to keep my local repositories up-to-date with changes made in remote repositories:

git -C $repository fetch --all && git branch --all --track

Acknowledgments

• Rodrigo Rega Thanks a lot for the tips and the fulltree alias :)

Enjoy! ;)