Useful Git Commands

A list of all the Git Commands that I find useful

Repository

Working with a remote repository

git remote add upstream git://github.com/diaspora/diaspora.git

Status

Current

status

git status

Commits

To view commits on a branch

git log --graph the_branch_name

To view commits on a branch pretty printed

git log --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit

To add pretty print alias to your git config

Add alias to config

git config --global alias.lg "log --color --graph --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit"

To view pretty printed commits with an alias

git lg

Branches

Create and checkout new branch

git checkout -b new_branch_name

Create and checkout a new branch from a branch

git checkout -b new_branch_name dev_branch

Delete unmerged local branch

git branch -D the_local_branch

Rename current local branch

git branch -m new_branch_name

Push local branch to remote Git repository

git push -u origin the_local_branch

Create local branch that fetchs and tracks remote branch

git checkout --track origin/the_remote_branch

Push local branch with detached head to remote Git repository

git push origin HEAD:the_local_branch

Pull down all remote branches locally

git fetch --all  
git pull --all

View all local branches including hidden branches

git branch -a

List local git branch names, ordered by most recent commit

git for-each-ref --count=30 --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ --format='%(refname:short)'

View locally the remote branch

git checkout origin/the_remote_branch

Work locally with the remote branch

git checkout -b the_remote_branch origin/the_remote_branch

Enter merge commit message to merge changes from updated remote branch into local branch to enable push

press "i"
write your merge message
press "esc"
write ":wq"
then press enter

Inspecting Changes with Diffs

Diff a modified file before staging

git diff path/to/file

List file name and status differences between two branches

git diff --name-status branch_one..branch_two

View line differences in a named file between two branches

git diff mybranch master -- myfile.css

View side by side differences in difftool

git difftool path/to/file

Unstaged Changes

Discard a file with unstaged changes

git checkout path/to/file/to/revert

Discard all unstaged changes

git checkout -- .

Discard all uncommmited changes

git reset --hard

Delete unstaged local files

Show files that will be deleted

git clean -f -n 

Delete files

git clean -f

Delete Directories

git clean -f -d

Undo Add

git reset

Commits

Add and commit all modified files, but not newly created files

git commit -am  "commit message"

View all commit messages in current branch

git cherry -v development current_branch

List all files in commit

git show --name-only <sha>

Revert Commit

Revert back one local commit

git reset --hard HEAD~1

Revert everything from the HEAD back to the commit hash

This will revert everything from the HEAD back to the commit hash, meaning it will recreate that commit state in the working tree as if every commit since had been walked back. You can then commit the current tree, and it will create a brand new commit essentially equivalent to the commit you "reverted" to.

git revert --no-commit 0766c053..HEAD
git commit

Revert branch to preceeding commit

Verify changes to make

git log --oneline  
git checkout HEAD~1  
git reset hard origin/master  

Switch branches to go back to the correct branch

git checkout development  
git checkout master  
git pull  

Revert commit and push to remote repository

git log  
git revert 9121c997065b043228763356865c307115c47538  

Type message and then esc, :x

git push  

Reword current commit message

git commit --amend -m "New commit message"
git push --force origin current_branch_name

Reword previous commit message

List previous commits since branching

git cherry -v parent_branch

Enter interactive rebase for commit N (where N is the number of commits back)

git rebase -i HEAD~N

Enable INSERT or Replace mode and type reword as per instructions

reword

Then escape, write and quit

esc
:wq

Edit Commit message then escape, write and quit

esc
:wq

To quit the interactive rebase

esc
git rebase --abort

Rebase

Pull remote master updates (since branching) into local branch

git pull --rebase origin master

Undo a rebase

First make a backup

git tag BACKUP

If some goes wrong you can run

git reset --hard BACKUP

Use git relog to find the desired commit

git reflog

Then reset head to desired commit

git reset --hard HEAD@{5}

Or alternatively rebase saves your starting point to ORIG_HEAD so this command will revert to pre-rebase state

git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD

Diffs

Compare diffs side by side

git difftool  

Launch 'opendiff' [Y/n]: Y

Merging

Merge locally

git checkout local_branch_to_merge_into
git merge local_branch_to_merge

To exit a merge

git reset --merge

To undo a local merge

To find commit to revert to

git log

To revert to previous commit

git reset --hard hash_of_commit_to_revert_to

Tracking

Remove untracked files and directories

Dry run

git clean -dn

Perform delete of specfied untracked file or directoty

git clean -df directory/to/be/untracked/

Perform delete of all untracked

git clean -df 

Overwrite remote with local

Overwrite remote branch with local branch

git push -f origin the_branch_name

Untracking a file that is already tracked

git rm --cached path/to/file/to/stop/tracking  
git commit -m "Removed file that shouldn't be tracked"

Remotes

Print your remotes' fetch/push URLs.

git remote -v