The most basic Git commands you should know (Git Cheat Sheet)

Git

Version Control System to track the history of changes made to a project.

Basic Git Commands:

git init initializes a brand new Git repository and begins tracking an existing directory.

git clone creates a local copy of a project that already exists remotely.

git add stages a change. Any changes that are staged will become a part of the next snapshot and a part of the project's history.

git commit saves the snapshot to the project history and completes the change-tracking process.

git status shows the status of changes as untracked, modified, or staged.

git branch shows the branches being worked on locally.

git merge merges lines of development together.

git pull updates the local line of development with updates from its remote counterpart.

git push updates the remote repository with any commits made locally to a branch.

When you git clone, git fetch, git pull, or git push to a remote repository using HTTPS URLs on the command line, Git will ask for your GitHub username and password. When Git prompts you for your password, enter your personal access token.

Stage and snapshot

git status shows modified files in working directory, staged for your next commit

git add [file] adds a file to your next commit

git reset [file] unstages a file while retaining the changes in working directory

git diff shows differences of what is changed but not staged

git diff --staged shows differences of what is staged but not committed

git commit -m “[descriptive message]” commits your staged content as a new commit snapshot

Branch and Merge

git branch shows the branches being worked on locally.

git branch [branch-name] creates a new branch at the current commit.

git checkout switches to another branch and check it out into your working directory

(more details about git checkout: https://git-scm.com/docs/git-checkout)

git merge [branch] merges the specified branch’s history into the current one

git log shows all commits in the current branch’s history

Inspect and compare

git log shows the commit history for the currently active branch

git log branchB..branchA shows the commits on branchA that are not on branchB

git log --follow [file] shows the commits that changed file, even across renames

git diff branchB...branchA shows the differences of what is in branchA that is not in branchB

git show [SHA] show any object in Git in human-readable format

Share and update

git remote add [alias] [url] adds a git URL as an alias

git fetch [alias]fetches down all the branches from Git remote

git merge [alias]/[branch]merges a remote branch into your current branch to bring it up to date

git push [alias] [branch]transmits the local branch commits to the remote repository branch

git pull fetches and merge any commits from the tracking remote branch

Temporary commits

git stash saves modified and staged changes

git stash listlists stack-order of stashed file changes

git stash popwrites working from top of stash stack

git stash dropdiscards the changes from top of stash stack

Getting a repository on your local machine

Two ways to obtain a git repository:

Initializing a repository in an existing directory - take a local directory that is currently not under version control, and turn it into a Git repository.

You can clone an existing Git repository

The 1st method: Initializing a repository in an existing directory

Go to the directory you want cd /your_directory type git init

This creates a new subdirectory: .git that contains all of your necessary repository files but nothing is tracked yet. To begin tracking those files, do an initial commit:

git add *

git commit -m 'Initial commit'

The 2nd method: Cloning an existing repository:

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/YOUR-REPOSITORY

If you want to clone the repository into a directory with a different name, specify the new directory name as an argument

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/YOUR-REPOSITORY myproject