Git Cheatsheet

Overview of commands

add adds file contents to the staging area
commit records a snapshot of the staging area
status view the status of your files in the working directory and staging area
diff shows diff of what is staged and what is modified but unstaged
branch list, create, or delete branches
checkout switch branches or restore working tree files
pull fetch from a remote repo and try to merge into the current branch
push push your new branches and data to a remote repository
clone clone a repository into a new directory
init create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one
reset reset current HEAD to the specified state
merge join two or more development histories together
log show commit logs
help [command] get help info about a particular command

The first time we ask a file to be tracked, and every time before we commit a file, we must add it to the staging area:

git add Hello.java Goodbye.java

Takes a snapshot of these files, adds them to the staging area.
In older VCS, "add" means "start tracking this file." In Git, "add" means "add to staging area" so it will be part of the next commit.

To move staged changes into the repo, we commit:

git commit –m "Fixing bug #22"

To undo changes on a file before you have committed it:

git reset HEAD -- filename (unstages the file)
git checkout -- filename (undoes your changes)

All these commands are acting on your local version of repo.

To view status of files in working directory and staging area:

git status
git status –s (short version)

To see what is modified but unstaged:

git diff

To see a list of staged changes:

git diff --cached

To see a log of all changes in your local repo:

git log
git log --oneline (shorter version)
git log -5 (to show only the 5 most recent updates)

Git uses branching heavily to switch between multiple tasks.

To create a new local branch:

git branch name

To list all local branches: (* = current branch)

git branch

To switch to a given local branch:

git checkout branchname

To merge changes from a branch into the local master:

git checkout master
git merge branchname

To fetch the most recent updates from the remote repo into your local repo, and put them into your working directory:

git pull origin master

To put your changes from your local repo in the remote repo:

git push origin master

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"

Clone a remote repo to your current directory (will create the given local directory, containing a working copy of the files from the repo)

git clone url

Set the name and email for Git to use when you commit:

git config --global user.name "Bugs Bunny"
git config --global user.email bugs@gmail.com

Set the editor that is used for writing commit messages (default vi):

git config --global core.editor nano