This cheat sheet summarizes important commands from the introduction lesson Version Control with Git.
In some commands a parameter appears in angle brackets (e.g. <file>). This notation symbolizes that a concrete parameter must be used here (in the example a file name).
Git commands
Setup
| command | description | ||
|---|---|---|---|
git config --global user.name "<username>" |
set user name | ||
git config --global user.email "<email-address>" |
set email address |
First steps
| command | description |
|---|---|
git init <repo-name> |
creates a new repository called <repo-name> |
git clone <repository> |
clones an existing repository |
git status |
shows status message about the state of the working directory and staging area |
git add <file> |
adds <file> to staging area |
git add . |
adds all files to the staging area that where changed since last commit |
git commit -m "<commit-message>" |
creates a commit from the current (staged) project state with the message <commit-message> |
git commit --amend -m "<commit-message>" |
replaces last commit using new commit message; additional files can be staged beforehand (git add) |
git gui |
starts the graphical client for staging and committing |
cat .gitignore |
shows files ignored by Git each line can contain a file name or patterns like *.log which will ignore all files ending with .log |
git status --ignored |
shows ignored files |
Version history
| command | description |
|---|---|
git log |
commit history |
git log <file> |
commit history for <file> |
git log -<n> |
commit history of the last <n> commits (e.g. git log -3 for last three commits) |
git log --oneline |
commit history, single-line display |
git log --stat |
commit history including which files have been changed and how many lines have been deleted/added |
git log --grep="<string>" |
commits whose commit message contains <string> |
gitk |
starts the graphical client for commit history |
Changes
| command | description |
|---|---|
git diff |
shows unstaged changes in the working directory |
git diff <commit> git diff <commit> -- |
shows differences between <commit> and current working directory |
git diff <commit-A> <commit-B> |
shows differences between <commit-A> and <commit-B> example calls: git diff HEAD~3 HEAD~1 git diff a372d2d 6ef3d23 |
Previous versions
| command | description |
|---|---|
git restore <file> |
restores unstaged changes in the working directory to the state of the last commit. |
git checkout -- <file> |
same as git restore <file> |
git restore --staged <file> |
removes a file from the staging area (“unstaging”) |
git restore --source <commit> <file> |
restores <file> to its state in <commit> |
Looking at earlier project states
| command | description |
|---|---|
git checkout <commit> |
get earlier project state (<commit>) into working directory -> DETACHED HEAD, do not commit now! |
git checkout <branch> |
if DETACHED HEAD: back to current commit, reattaches HEAD, committing is harmless again. <branch> is main or master by default. |
Reset project
| command | description |
|---|---|
git reset <commit> |
set repository back into the state of <commit>, caution: deletes all commits after <commit>! |
Working with remote repositories
| command | description |
|---|---|
git remote -v |
lists remotes |
git remote add <name> <url> |
adds remote <name> pointing at <url> |
git remote set-url <name> <new-url> |
changes URL of remote <name> to <new-url> |
git pull <name> |
incorporates changes from remote <name> |
git push <name> |
pushes changes from current branch into remote <name> |