Git commands and syntax

How to understand command line syntax?

Reference: https://developers.google.com/style/code-syntax

Cheatsheet: https://training.github.com/downloads/github-git-cheat-sheet/

Required items (commands, arguments, etc.)

Text without brackets or braces.

command
command --argument

Optional arguments

Text enclosed in square brackets.

command [--argument]

If there's more than one optional argument, each item is enclosed in its own set of square brackets.

command [--argument1] [--argument2]

Mutually exclusive arguments

If only one of the specified items should be chosen, the items are enclosed inside curly brackets (aka. braces), with vertical bars (aka. pipes) separating the options. There can be more than two mutually exclusive choices, separated from each other by pipes.

command {--argument1 | --argument2}
command {-a | --argument}
command {--required1 --also-required1 | --or-required2 [--optional2]}

Arguments that can repeat

Arguments that can have multiple values specified by the user are indicated with an ellipsis (...) .

command [--repeatable-argument ...]

User input

User provided information is enclosed in angle brackets (aka. chevrons).

command --argument <user-input>

List of git commands

For the complete list of all commands, see https://git-scm.com/docs.

Category	Command	Description
Setup and Config	git	Git
	git-config	Get and set repository or global options
	git-help	Display help information about Git
	git-bugreport	Collect information for user to file a bug report
Getting and Creating Projects	git-init	Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one
	git-clone	Clone a repository into a new directory
Basic Snapshotting	git-add	Add file contents to the index
	git-status	Show the working tree status
	git-diff	Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
	git-commit	Record changes to the repository
	git-notes	Add or inspect object notes
	git-restore	Restore working tree files
	git-reset	Reset current HEAD to the specified state
	git-rm	Remove files from the working tree and from the index
	git-mv	Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink
Branching and Merging	git-branch	List, create, or delete branches
	git-checkout	Switch branches or restore working tree files
	git-switch	Switch branches
	git-merge	Join two or more development histories together
	git-mergetool	Run merge conflict resolution tools to resolve merge conflicts
	git-log	Show commit logs
	git-stash	Stash the changes in a dirty working directory away
	git-tag	Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG
	git-worktree	Manage multiple working trees
Sharing and Updating Projects	git-fetch	Download objects and refs from another repository
	git-pull	Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch
	git-push	Update remote refs along with associated objects
	git-remote	Manage set of tracked repositories
	git-submodule	Initialize, update or inspect submodules
Inspection and Comparison	git-show	Show various types of objects
	git-log	Show commit logs
	git-diff	Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
	git-difftool	Show changes using common diff tools
	git-range-diff	Compare two commit ranges (e.g. two versions of a branch)
	git-shortlog	Summarize git log output
	git-describe	Give an object a human readable name based on an available ref
Patching	git-apply	Apply a patch to files and/or to the index
	git-cherry-pick	Apply the changes introduced by some existing commits
	git-diff	Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
	git-rebase	Reapply commits on top of another base tip
	git-revert	Revert some existing commits
Debugging	git-bisect	Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug
	git-blame	Show what revision and author last modified each line of a file
	git-grep	Print lines matching a pattern