Git Cheatsheet [with PDF]

Do you find it hard to follow 1.5 hours-long git tutorials? Or do you get a headache when you open git documentation? This blog is for you!

While learning git, I made notes of all the useful commands that a beginner needs to know. This way you won't be wasting too much of your time on watching boring tutorials.

I will provide a PDF of this article at the end so please share it with your friends and you can bookmark this as well for future reference!

Editing Configuration

git config --global user.name "your_username"

to set the username of the user committing code

git config --global user.email "your_email"

to set the email of the user

git config -- global core.editor "code --wait"

Asks the system to open the global info stored in the default code editor and the terminal waits till the file is closed

These are the command to set your username and there are three levels of setting details:

system -> for all users on your PC
global -> for all repository and current user
local -> for this repository .

Basic Commands

git init

to initialize the git repository at the current directory

git status

to display the files that are untracked in red color or in the staging area and show the changes in the files

git add .

to add all the files to the staging area
git add *.js

to add only those files with the same extension

git add file1.txt

to add just a specific file

git commit -m "short message"

to add snapshots to your repository with a short message

git commit

just running this command will open the code editor to write a complete description if >you don't write a short message
git commit --am "fix the bug"

skipping the staging area and committing the file directory into the local repository

git ls-files

to display files in the staging area

git mv file1.txt main.js

command that renames the file and adds the changes to the staging area

echo file1.txt > .gitignore

to add files to gitignore and all these files that are in gitignore will not get added to the repository

git rm --cached file1.txt

removes the file from the index only

git status -s

to see the short status of the files

git restore --staged file_name

restores the exact previous state of the file and either removes it from the index and make it untracked if you have just staged that file or make it an unstaged file if you have committed that file

git show commit_key

to show the changes in a specific commit

Tip: Just write 4-5 characters of the commit key that should be enough

git show HEAD~2

to show the changes in the previous commit (according to the example HEAD is the current commit to show the status of the commit that was exactly 2 commits before)

Remove a File from Staging Area

Step1. rm file2.txt

deletes the file you want to remove but the file remains intact in your directory

Step2. git add file2.txt

this add command will remove the file from the staging area

Step 3. git rm file1.txt

this command removes the file from the staging area as well as from the directory.

Commit Logs

git log

to display all the commits starting from the beginning to the end

git log --online

to display just the commit key and the message along with it

git log --reverse

to display commits starting from the latest to the old commits

Tip: Press space to go to the next page

git log --oneline --patch

to display changes made and with other details like commit author and his email etc

git log --oneline --author = "author_name"

display all the commits made by a particular author

git log --oneline --before = "YYYY-MM-DD"

display all the commits made before a specific date

git log --oneline --after = "YYYY-MM-DD" --before = "YYYY-MM-DD"

display all the commits made after 15 march and before 28 May

git checkout commit_key

to go to previous versions of the file

Tip: To comeback to the latest commit run the command: git checkout master

Restoring a Deleted File

Step 1. Look for the commit in which that file existed

Step 2. git checkout commit_key deleted_file_name

run this command with the full name of the file and the commit key in which the file existed

Step 3. git commit -m "msg"

run this command to do a new commit along with the deleted file

Tagging Commits

git tag tag_name commit_key

to label commits with some names like v1.0 to denote the first version of the program

git tag

to show the list of all the commits with labels

git tag -n

to show the list of commits with messages

git tag -a tag_name -m "your_message"

to label commits and it will store more details like the name of the person labeling, date and time, etc

Branch

git branch branch_name

to create a new branch

git switch branch_name

to switch/change to a particular branch

git branch -m old_name new_name

to rename the git branch

git branch -d branch_name

deletes the branch only if the branch has been pushed and merged

git branch -D branch_name

deletes the branch forcefully

git log master .. branch_name

show the list of commits that a particular branch is ahead of the master branch

Git doesn't let you change the branch if you have not committed the changes otherwise your changes will get removed!

So if you have to change the branch without committing the code, you can use stash to store your changes.

Stash

git stash push -m "your_message"

to put all tracked files change in the stash but changes in untracked files can get removed!

git stash push -am "your_message"

to put all files change in the stash

git stash list

to display the list of stash

git stash apply stash_key

to get back all the files and changes that were not even committed

Merging Branches

Merges are of two types:

let's say we have two branches a master branch and a featured branch

fast forward: if the featured branch is simply ahead of the master branch and there have been no changes in the master branch since the featured branch was created or since the master branch was merged with the featured branch last time and their path has not yet diverged
3 way: if the master and the featured branch both have been updated and their paths have diverged.

git log --oneline --all --graph

to see commits across all the branches

git merge branch_name

to merge two branches

git branch --merged

to show the list of branches that are merged

git branch --no-merged

to show the list of branches that are not merged

git merge --abort

run this command to abort the merge if you can't solve the problem or decided not to merge branches

Resolving merge conflicts

Step 1. git status

to see merge conflicts that have occurred and which file(s) has error merging

Step 2. code file_name

open that file in the code editor to solve the conflict manually and close the file to go to terminal

Step 3. git add file_name

add the file to the staging area

Step 4. git commit

commit the changes in the file and the code editor will open to write out the complete message about the merge

Remotes

git remote set-url remote_name "url"

to change the name of the remote

git remote

to show the list of all the remotes created

git remote -v

to show the fetch and push URL of remote in the current repository

git remote add short_name remote_url

to add a new remote to the repository

git remote rm remote_name

to remove a remote by its name

git remote rename old_name new_name>

to rename a remote

Push to Repository

git push remote_name branch_name

to push files from the local repository to the remote repository

These are the essential commands that new developers should know and this blog is kind of reference. You can remember these commands but there is no read of it as you can always come and look for specific commands.

Here is the PDF of the cheatsheet: Google Drive

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Aftab Alam's Blog