Git Cheat Sheet

Setup

Set the name and email that will be attached to your commits and tags:

$ git config --global user.name "your-username"
$ git config --global user.email "youremail@gmail.com"

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Start a Project

Create a local repo (initialize the current directory as a git repo):

$ git init <directory>

Download a remote repo:

$ git clone <url>

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Make a Change

Add a file to staging:

$ git add <file>

Stage all files:

$ git add .

Commit all staged files to git:

$ git commit -m "commit message"

Add changes to tracked files to staging:

$ git commit -am "commit message"

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Remove node_module / .env file from GitHub

To remove a file from your GitHub repository, follow these steps:

1. Remove the file from your local repository using the git rm command:

   git rm <file_path>

2. Commit the changes to your local repository:

   git commit -m "Removed <file_path>"

3. Push the changes to your remote GitHub repository:

   git push origin <branch_name>

If you want to remove the file from version control but keep it in your local file system, use:

git rm --cached <file_path>

Retrieve a File from a Previous Commit

To retrieve a file from a previous commit in your Git repository, follow these steps:

1. Find the commit hash that contains the version of the file you want. Use:

   git log --oneline

2. Checkout the file from the specific commit using:

   git checkout <commit_hash> -- <file_path>

   This command retrieves the version of the file from the specific commit and places it in your working directory.

3. Optionally, commit the changes if you want to keep the retrieved version:

   git add <file_path>
   git commit -m "Reverted <file_path> to version from <commit_hash>"
   git push origin <branch_name>

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Change the Remote Repository URL

To change the remote repository URL in your Git repository, follow these steps:

1. View the current remote URL (optional):

   git remote -v

2. Change the remote URL using the set-url command:

   git remote set-url origin <new_url>

3. Verify the change (optional):

   git remote -v

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Basic Concepts

• master: Default development branch
• origin: Default remote name
• HEAD: Current branch
• HEAD^: Parent of HEAD
• HEAD~4: 4th commit back from HEAD

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Branches

List all local branches (add -r flag to show all remote branches, -a to show all branches):

$ git branch

Create a new branch:

$ git branch <new-branch>

Switch to a branch and update the working directory:

$ git checkout <branch>

Create a new branch and switch to it:

$ git checkout -b <new-branch>

Delete a merged branch:

$ git branch -d <branch>

Delete a branch, whether merged or not:

$ git branch -D <branch>

Add a tag to current commit (use -a to tag new releases):

$ git tag <tag-name>

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Merging

Merge a branch into a branch B (add --no-ff to avoid fast-forward merge):

$ git merge <branch>

Merge and rebase all commits at once (single commit):

$ git merge --squash <branch>

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Rebasing

Rebase feature branch onto main to incorporate new changes made to main (prevents unnecessary merge commits into feature, keeping history linear):

$ git checkout feature
$ git rebase main

Iteratively clean up a branch's commits before rebasing onto main:

$ git rebase -i main

Iteratively rebase the last 3 commits in the current branch:

$ git rebase -i Head~3

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Undoing Things

Move (and/or rename) a file and stage it:

$ git mv <existing-path> <new-path>

Remove a file from the working directory and from staging area, then stage the deletion:

$ git rm <file>

Reset a file or a commit:

• Reset a file from staging area only:

  $ git reset <file>

• Reset the index and working directory to a specific commit (read-only):

  $ git reset --hard <commit_ID>

Revert a commit by creating a new commit:

$ git revert <commit_ID>

Restore file to a specific commit (leaves staging alone):

$ git checkout <commit_ID> <file>

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Review your Repo

List new or modified files not yet committed:

$ git status

List commit history, with respective IDs:

$ git log --oneline

Show changes to unstaged files (to changes of staged files, add --cached option):

$ git diff

Show changes between two commits:

$ git diff commit1_ID commit2_ID

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Stashing

Store modified and staged changes (to include untracked files, add -u flag. For untracked & ignored files, add -a):

$ git stash

As above, but add a comment:

$ git stash save "comment"

Partial stash (stash just single file):

$ git stash push -p

List all stashes:

$ git stash list

Apply stash:

$ git stash apply stash@{1}

Delete stash at index 1 (omit stash@{n} to delete the last stash):

$ git stash drop stash@{1}

Clear all stashes:

$ git stash clear

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Synchronizing

Add a remote repo:

$ git remote add <alias> <url>

View all remote connections (add -v to view full URLs):

$ git remote

Remove a connection:

$ git remote remove <alias>

Rename a connection:

$ git remote rename <old> <new>

Fetch all branches from remote repo (no merge):

$ git fetch <alias>

Fetch a specific branch:

$ git fetch <alias> <branch>

Merge fetched changes into current branch:

$ git pull

Push all branches to remote repo:

$ git push <alias> <branch>

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This cheat sheet summarizes the most common Git commands and operations. For more detailed information, refer to the official Git documentation.

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