An Overview of Git Commands

A high-level overview of my most used git features.

Written by Anthony Ongaro, on 2023-1-20

git

github

Bold is definition, inline code is terminal command related.

Terminology

General terms

Working Directory is your current folder/directory
Staging Area shows files that will be in the next commit (or not)
Commit a ‘save point’ in your version control you can always go back to

Terminal… terms

git a version control system used in software development
HEAD is the most recent commit
origin is the codebase to ‘trust’ the most (remote, probably on Github)
remote references your remote repository (probably Github)
branch is the current working branch of the git tree

Getting Started

Initialize a new local repository, stage your files, and start committing them

git init initializes a new local git repository in the current working directory
git add <filename> adds file to the staging area
git reset removes all files from staging area
git commit -m '<commit message>' new commit, use syntax “This commit will…” for msg

Branches

Work more effectively with coworkers by creating a branch before making changes to a shared repository. This tracks changes under a ‘branch’ that can then be merged with the main via a pull request

git branch <new branch_name> create a new git branch
git branch -d <branch_name> safely deletes branch assuming merged
git checkout <branch_name> moves to <branch_name> branch
git checkout -b <branch_name> does both of the above, combined
git checkout - takes you to last branch you were working on
git rebase main to move your branch’s history up to main’s HEAD
git rebase main --interactive to select which commits to squash replaces pick
git merge <branch_name> to merge branch you’re ON (main?) with <branch_name>

Getting Information

git status checks current status of staging area
git diff shows difference between
git log shows log of project’s commits use --graph --oneline to simplify
git remote -v shows current remote repository connection

Working with Github

git remote add origin <ssh address> connect initialized local repo to a Github repository
git clone <ssh address> creates a new project folder locally with git init’d to remote
git push -u origin <branch_name> push last commit to remote, all future pushes can use:
git push push to remote once set up with above
git pull pull down latest changes from Github repository

Fixing Things

Fix your messed up commit messages or files forgotten from last commit

git commit --amend opens text editor to modify last commit message
git commit --amend -m '<commit_message>' updates most recent commit to <commit_message>
git add <file> then git commit --amend --no-edit adds forgotten file to last commit
git reset <commit_id> leaves files ‘as-is’ but un-commits last commit
git reset --hard <commit_id> deletes last commit and all changes since

Stashing Things

When you are writing code but doesn’t work yet, and you want to save for later without committing your work to the official history

git stash saves your changes since last commit for later in an array
git stash pop brings back your most recent stash from end of array
git stash save <name> save a stash with a specific name
git stash list list all available stashes by name
git stash apply <index_num> brings back stash at index position <index_num>

Advanced Git

You can do custom key bindings using aliases