Git

Essential commands for Git version control.

Initial Setup

Configuration

# Set username
git config --global user.name "John Doe"

# Set email
git config --global user.email "john@example.com"

# Set default editor
git config --global core.editor vim

# Set default branch name
git config --global init.defaultBranch main

# List all settings
git config --list

# Show specific setting
git config user.name

# Edit config file
git config --global --edit

Repository Creation

# Initialize new repository
git init

# Clone existing repository
git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git

# Clone to specific directory
git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git myproject

# Clone specific branch
git clone -b develop https://github.com/user/repo.git

# Shallow clone (recent history only)
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/user/repo.git

Basic Commands

Status and Information

# Show working tree status
git status

# Short status
git status -s

# Show commit history
git log

# One line per commit
git log --oneline

# Show last N commits
git log -5

# Show commits with file changes
git log --stat

# Show commits with diff
git log -p

# Show graph
git log --graph --oneline --all

# Show commits by author
git log --author="John"

# Show commits since date
git log --since="2 weeks ago"

# Show commits with search
git log --grep="bug fix"

# Show who changed what in file
git blame filename.txt

# Show changes between commits
git diff commit1 commit2

Staging and Committing

# Add file to staging
git add filename.txt

# Add all files
git add .

# Add all modified files (not new)
git add -u

# Interactive staging
git add -i

# Add parts of file
git add -p

# Commit staged changes
git commit -m "Commit message"

# Add and commit in one step
git commit -am "Message"

# Amend last commit
git commit --amend

# Amend without changing message
git commit --amend --no-edit

# Empty commit (useful for CI)
git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger build"

Undoing Changes

# Discard changes in working directory
git checkout -- filename.txt

# Unstage file (keep changes)
git reset HEAD filename.txt

# Undo last commit (keep changes)
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Undo last commit (discard changes)
git reset --hard HEAD~1

# Revert specific commit (creates new commit)
git revert commit-hash

# Remove file from staging and working dir
git rm filename.txt

# Remove file from repo but keep locally
git rm --cached filename.txt

# Restore file from specific commit
git checkout commit-hash -- filename.txt

Branching and Merging

Branch Management

# List local branches
git branch

# List all branches (local and remote)
git branch -a

# List remote branches
git branch -r

# Create new branch
git branch feature-branch

# Create and switch to branch
git checkout -b feature-branch

# Switch branches
git checkout main

# Modern switch command
git switch main

# Create and switch (modern)
git switch -c feature-branch

# Rename current branch
git branch -m new-name

# Rename specific branch
git branch -m old-name new-name

# Delete local branch
git branch -d feature-branch

# Force delete branch
git branch -D feature-branch

# Delete remote branch
git push origin --delete feature-branch

Merging

# Merge branch into current branch
git merge feature-branch

# Merge with commit even if fast-forward
git merge --no-ff feature-branch

# Abort merge in progress
git merge --abort

# Show merge conflicts
git diff --name-only --diff-filter=U

# Mark conflict as resolved
git add conflicted-file.txt

Rebasing

# Rebase current branch onto main
git rebase main

# Interactive rebase (last 3 commits)
git rebase -i HEAD~3

# Continue rebase after resolving conflicts
git rebase --continue

# Skip current commit during rebase
git rebase --skip

# Abort rebase
git rebase --abort

# Rebase and autosquash
git rebase -i --autosquash main

Remote Repositories

Remote Management

# Show remote repositories
git remote -v

# Add remote repository
git remote add origin https://github.com/user/repo.git

# Change remote URL
git remote set-url origin https://github.com/user/newrepo.git

# Remove remote
git remote remove origin

# Rename remote
git remote rename origin upstream

# Show remote details
git remote show origin

Fetching and Pulling

# Fetch from remote
git fetch origin

# Fetch all remotes
git fetch --all

# Fetch and prune deleted branches
git fetch --prune

# Pull from remote (fetch + merge)
git pull origin main

# Pull with rebase
git pull --rebase origin main

# Pull all branches
git pull --all

Pushing

# Push to remote
git push origin main

# Push and set upstream
git push -u origin feature-branch

# Push all branches
git push --all

# Push tags
git push --tags

# Force push (dangerous!)
git push --force

# Safer force push
git push --force-with-lease

# Delete remote branch
git push origin --delete feature-branch

Stashing

Stash Commands

# Stash changes
git stash

# Stash with message
git stash save "WIP: feature implementation"

# List stashes
git stash list

# Apply most recent stash
git stash apply

# Apply specific stash
git stash apply stash@{2}

# Apply and remove stash
git stash pop

# Show stash contents
git stash show

# Show stash diff
git stash show -p

# Drop specific stash
git stash drop stash@{0}

# Clear all stashes
git stash clear

# Stash including untracked files
git stash -u

# Stash including ignored files
git stash -a

Inspection and Comparison

Diff Commands

# Show unstaged changes
git diff

# Show staged changes
git diff --staged

# Show changes between branches
git diff main feature-branch

# Show changes in specific file
git diff filename.txt

# Show word-level diff
git diff --word-diff

# Show summary of changes
git diff --stat

# Compare with remote
git diff origin/main

Show Command

# Show commit details
git show commit-hash

# Show file from commit
git show commit-hash:path/to/file

# Show commit stats
git show --stat commit-hash

History Rewriting

Interactive Rebase Actions

# Reword commit message
git rebase -i HEAD~3
# Change 'pick' to 'reword'

# Squash commits
# Change 'pick' to 'squash' or 's'

# Edit commit
# Change 'pick' to 'edit'

# Drop commit
# Change 'pick' to 'drop' or delete line

# Reorder commits
# Reorder lines in rebase file

Reset and Clean

# Reset to specific commit (keep changes)
git reset commit-hash

# Reset and discard changes
git reset --hard commit-hash

# Clean untracked files
git clean -n  # dry run
git clean -f  # force

# Clean directories too
git clean -fd

# Clean ignored files
git clean -fx

Advanced Commands

Cherry Pick

# Apply specific commit to current branch
git cherry-pick commit-hash

# Cherry pick multiple commits
git cherry-pick commit1 commit2

# Cherry pick without committing
git cherry-pick -n commit-hash

# Abort cherry pick
git cherry-pick --abort

# Continue after resolving conflicts
git cherry-pick --continue

Submodules

# Add submodule
git submodule add https://github.com/user/repo.git path/to/submodule

# Initialize submodules
git submodule init

# Update submodules
git submodule update

# Clone with submodules
git clone --recursive https://github.com/user/repo.git

# Update all submodules to latest
git submodule update --remote

# Remove submodule
git submodule deinit path/to/submodule
git rm path/to/submodule

Bisect (Binary Search)

# Start bisect
git bisect start

# Mark current commit as bad
git bisect bad

# Mark specific commit as good
git bisect good commit-hash

# Git will checkout middle commit for testing
# After testing, mark as good or bad
git bisect good
# or
git bisect bad

# Reset after finding bad commit
git bisect reset

Worktrees

# Create new worktree
git worktree add ../project-feature feature-branch

# List worktrees
git worktree list

# Remove worktree
git worktree remove ../project-feature

# Prune deleted worktrees
git worktree prune

Searching

Search Commands

# Search in files
git grep "search term"

# Search with line numbers
git grep -n "search term"

# Search in specific commit
git grep "search term" commit-hash

# Count matches
git grep -c "search term"

# Search with context
git grep -C 3 "search term"

# Search commit messages
git log --grep="search term"

# Search code changes
git log -S "function_name"

Maintenance

Repository Maintenance

# Optimize repository
git gc

# Aggressive optimization
git gc --aggressive

# Verify repository integrity
git fsck

# Count objects
git count-objects -v

# Show repository size
git count-objects -vH

# Prune unreachable objects
git prune

# Remove files from history
git filter-branch --tree-filter 'rm -f passwords.txt' HEAD

Reflog

# Show reference log
git reflog

# Show reflog for branch
git reflog show main

# Recover lost commit
git checkout commit-hash

# Undo reset using reflog
git reset --hard HEAD@{1}

Aliases

Common Aliases

# Set up useful aliases
git config --global alias.co checkout
git config --global alias.br branch
git config --global alias.ci commit
git config --global alias.st status
git config --global alias.unstage 'reset HEAD --'
git config --global alias.last 'log -1 HEAD'
git config --global alias.visual 'log --graph --oneline --all'
git config --global alias.amend 'commit --amend --no-edit'

Best Practices

Workflow Tips

# Always pull before push
git pull --rebase origin main

# Create feature branch from updated main
git checkout main
git pull
git checkout -b feature-branch

# Commit often with clear messages
git commit -m "Add user authentication"

# Keep commits atomic (one logical change)
# Use descriptive branch names
# feature/user-login
# bugfix/header-spacing
# hotfix/security-patch

# Before merging feature
git checkout main
git pull
git checkout feature-branch
git rebase main
git checkout main
git merge feature-branch

.gitignore Examples

# Python
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
*.so
.env
venv/

# Node.js
node_modules/
npm-debug.log
.env

# IDE
.vscode/
.idea/
*.swp

# OS
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# Build
dist/
build/
*.log

Emergency Commands

Oh Shit, Git!

# Undo last commit but keep changes
git reset --soft HEAD~1

# Discard all local changes
git reset --hard HEAD

# I committed to wrong branch
git checkout correct-branch
git cherry-pick commit-hash

# I need to undo a public commit
git revert commit-hash

# I accidentally committed secrets
# Remove from history (careful!)
git filter-branch --force --index-filter \
  'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch path/to/secret' \
  --prune-empty --tag-name-filter cat -- --all

# Then force push (coordinate with team!)
git push --force --all

On This Page

Initial Setup

Configuration

Repository Creation

Basic Commands

Status and Information

Staging and Committing

Undoing Changes

Branching and Merging

Branch Management

Merging

Rebasing

Remote Repositories

Remote Management

Fetching and Pulling

Pushing

Stashing

Stash Commands

Tags

Tag Management

Inspection and Comparison

Diff Commands

Show Command

History Rewriting

Interactive Rebase Actions

Reset and Clean

Advanced Commands

Cherry Pick

Submodules

Bisect (Binary Search)

Worktrees

Searching

Search Commands

Maintenance

Repository Maintenance

Reflog

Aliases

Common Aliases

Best Practices

Workflow Tips

.gitignore Examples

Emergency Commands

Oh Shit, Git!