GIT Cheat Sheet For Beginners

This is a complete cheat sheet of git for beginners, and also it is very easy to use. This cheat sheet helps you to perform various functions using git CLI, you can also find your desired commands using the below table of contents.

Table of Contents

• GIT Basics
• Rewriting GIT History
• GIT Branches
• Remote Repositories
• Undoing Changes
• GIT Config
• GIT Log
• GIT Diff
• GIT Reset
• GIT Rebase
• GIT Pull
• GIT Push

GIT Basics

• git init <directory> Create empty Git repo in the specified directory. Run with no arguments to initialize the current directory as a git repository
• git clone <repo> Clone repo located at <repo> onto local machine. Original repo can be located on the local filesystem or on a remote machine via HTTP or SSH.
• git config user.name <name> Define author name to be used for all commits in current repo. Devs commonly use --global flag to set config options for current user
• git add <directory> Stage all changes in <directory> for the next commit. Replace <directory> with a <file> to change a specific file.
• git commit -m "<message>" Commit the staged snapshot, but instead of launching a text editor, use <message> as the commit message.
• git status List which files are staged, unstaged, and untracked
• git log Display the entire commit history using the default format. For customization see additional options.
• git diff Show unstaged changes between your index and working directory.

Rewriting GIT History

• git commit --amend Replace the last commit with the staged changes and last commit combined. Use with nothing staged to edit the last commit’s message.
• git rebase <base> Rebase the current branch onto <base>. <base> can be a commit ID, branch name, a tag, or a relative reference to HEAD
• git reflog Show a log of changes to the local repository’s HEAD. Add --relative-date flag to show date info or --all to show all refs

GIT Branches

• git branch List all of the branches in your repo. Add a <branch> argument to create a new branch with the name <branch>.
• git checkout -b <branch> Create and check out a new branch named <branch>. Drop the -b flag to checkout an existing branch.
• git merge <branch> Merge <branch> into the current branch.

Remote Repositories

• git remote add <name> <url> Create a new connection to a remote repo. After adding a remote, you can use <name> as a shortcut for <url> in other commands
• git fetch <remote> <branch> Fetches a specific <branch>, from the repo. Leave off <branch> to fetch all remote refs
• git pull <remote> Fetch the specified remote’s copy of current branch and immediately merge it into the local copy.
• git push <remote> <branch> Push the branch to <remote>, along with necessary commits and objects. Creates named branch in the remote repo if it doesn’t exist

Undoing Changes

• git revert <commit> Create new commit that undoes all of the changes made in <commit>, then apply it to the current branch.
• git reset <file> Remove <file> from the staging area, but leave the working directory unchanged. This unstages a file without overwriting any changes.
• git clean -n Shows which files would be removed from working directory. Use the -f flag in place of the -n flag to execute the clean.

GIT Config

• git config --global user.name <name> Define the author name to be used for all commits by the current user.
• git config --global user.email <email> Define the author email to be used for all commits by the current user
• git config --global alias. <alias-name> <git-command> Create shortcut for a Git command. E.g. alias.glog “log --graph --oneline” will set ”git glog” equivalent to ”git log --graph --oneline.
• git config --system core.editor <editor> Set text editor used by commands for all users on the machine. <editor> arg should be the command that launches the desired editor (e.g., vi).
• git config --global --edit Open the global configuration file in a text editor for manual editing

GIT Log

• git log -<limit> Limit number of commits by <limit>. E.g. ”git log -5” will limit to 5 commits.
• git log --oneline Condense each commit to a single line.
• git log -p Display the full diff of each commit.
• git log --stat Include which files were altered and the relative number of lines that were added or deleted from each of them.
• git log --author=”<pattern>” Search for commits by a particular author.
• git log --grep=”<pattern>” Search for commits with a commit message that matches <pattern>.
• git log <since>..<until> Show commits that occur between <since> and <until>. Args can be a commit ID, branch name, HEAD, or any other kind of revision reference.
• git log -- <file> Only display commits that have the specified file.
• git log --graph --decorate --graph flag draws a text based graph of commits on left side of commit msgs. --decorate adds names of branches or tags of commits shown.

GIT Diff

• git diff HEAD Show difference between working directory and last commit
• git diff --cached Show difference between staged changes and last commit

GIT Reset

• git reset Reset staging area to match most recent commit, but leave the working directory unchanged
• git reset --hard Reset staging area and working directory to match most recent commit and overwrites all changes in the working directory.
• git reset <commit> Move the current branch tip backward to <commit>, reset the staging area to match, but leave the working directory alone.
• git reset --hard <commit> Same as previous, but resets both the staging area & working directory to match. Deletes uncommitted changes, and all commits after <commit>.

GIT Rebase

• git rebase -i <base> Interactively rebase current branch onto <base>. Launches editor to enter commands for how each commit will be transferred to the new base.

GIT Pull

• git pull --rebase <remote> Fetch the remote’s copy of current branch and rebases it into the local copy. Uses git rebase instead of merge to integrate the branches.

GIT Push

• git push <remote> --force Forces the git push even if it results in a non-fast-forward merge. Do not use the --force flag unless you’re absolutely sure you know what you’re doing
• git push <remote> --all Push all of your local branches to the specified remote.
• git push <remote> --tags Tags aren’t automatically pushed when you push a branch or use the --all flag. The --tags flag sends all of your local tags to the remote repo.

📝📝 Again this is not a complete GIT overview, this is just a small cheat sheet from where you can take help for clearing concepts.