git

Helpful tips and files for git

Git Basics

The first command used to initialize the project, executed in the root working directory of the project:

  $ git init

How to add files to the stage:

  $ git add .
  # or
  $ git add <individual file>

This commits your changes, commit messages should be present tense:

  $ git commit -m "add javascript file"

Gives a snapshot of the stage:

  $ git status

Gives a record of your commits:

  $ git log

Configuration

Change the default editor:

  $ git config --global core.editor "nano"
  # or
  $ git config --global core.editor "vim"

Set user name and email:

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

Remote Repositories

This is how you check to see what remote repositories are associated with your local repo:

  $ git remote -v

This is how to connect the working directory on your machine with the repository on github, using https. This is a one-time setup command but will require a username and password each time a push is made:

  $ git remote add origin https://github.com/sfdeloach/c-prog-solutions.git
                   ^ (this will be the name of the remote repository)

A SSH connection take a bit more setup but provides a faster way to push your code. Start by generating a new key pair on your local machine, then pasting the public key on github.com:

  $ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

Once SSH is setup, pushing code will not require a username and password:

  $ git remote add origin git@github.com:sfdeloach/c-prog-solutions.git

This will push all staged files to the repository:

  $ git push origin master
                    ^ (the branch being pushed to)

This will pull all files from the repository to your working local directory:

  $ git pull origin master

Checkout a previous commit or a branch from your repository:

  $ git checkout <<hash from git log>> // to revert to a previous commit
  $ git checkout master                // for the head to resume on the master commit

This is how to remove a directory (named node-modules) from your git repo...node-modules is a good directory to not include in your repo due its size and availability to download via npm (also, it should be listed in your .gitignore as well):

  $ git rm -r --cached node-modules
  $ git commit -m 'Remove the now ignored directory node_modules'
  $ git push origin master

Git Branches

List all of the branches in your repo. Add a <branch> argument to create a new branch with the name <branch>:

  $ git branch
  $ git branch <branch>

Create and checkout a new branch named <branch>. Drop the -b flag to checkout an existing branch:

  $ git checkout -b <branch>

Merge <branch> into the current branch:

  $ git merge <branch>

Rename a Local Branch and a Remote Branch

Rename the branch locally:

  $ git branch -m <old branch> <new branch>

Delete the old branch from your remote repository:

  $ git push origin :<old branch>  // <-- note the colon ':' preceeding the name of the old branch

Push the new branch, set the local branch to track the new remote branch:

  $ git push --set-upstream origin <new branch>

Fetch a remote branch and set as a local branch

First fetch the branch from your repository:

  $ git fetch origin <remote branch>

Then set your local branch to track changes made on the remote branch:

  $ git checkout --track origin/<remote branch>

Replace a local branch with a remote branch entirely

This will replace all local files with the files from the remote branch. Be absolutely sure that you have checked out the correct branch before performing this operation.

  $ git reset --hard origin/master
                     ^ (in this case, the local branch is master)