Git Basics Cheatsheet

This cheatsheet is a list of our most used Git commands and useful information for those who are getting started.

It is available in a few languages. Since the translation rely on volunteers, the content between the available languages may vary. Choose one below:

In case you've missed, there's a list of our most used commands and shortcuts in the Terminal for Mac.

GLOSSARY

Keywords	Description
git	Open-source distributed version-control system, used to store code in repositories
GitHub/Gitlab/Bitbucket	Platform for hosting and collaborating on Git repositories
staging	Proposed files/directories that you'd like to commit
commit	Saving all staged files/directories to your local repository
branch	An independent line of development, so you can develop features isolated from each other. Master branch is the default.
clone	Local version of a repository, including all commits and branches
remote	Common repository on eg. Github that all team members to keep that changes in sync with
fork	Copy of a repository owned by a different user
pull request	A method of submitting contributions to a repository
HEAD	Representing your current working directory

CONFIGURE

Key/Command	Description
git config --global user.name [name]	Set author name to be used for all commits
git config --global user.email [email]	Set author email to be used for all commits
git config color.ui true	Enables helpful colorization of command line output

CORE COMMANDS

Key/Command	Description
git init [directory]	Creates new local repository
git clone [repo]	Creates local copy of remote repository
git add [directory]	Stages specific [directory]
git add [file]	Stages specific [file]
git add .	Stages new and changed files, NOT deleted files
git commit -m "[message]"	Commit everything that is staged
git status	Shows status of changes as untracked, modified or staged

SYNCHRONIZE CHANGES

Key/Command	Description
git fetch	Downloads all history from the remote branches
git merge	Merges remote branch into current local branch
git pull	Updates local working branch with all new commits from the corresponding remote branch. git pull is a combination of git fetch and git merge
git push	Pushes all local branch commits to remote repository

UNDO CHANGES

Key/Command	Description
git checkout -- [file]	Replace file with contents from HEAD
git revert [commit]	Create new commit that undoes changes made in [commit], then apply it to the current branch
git reset [file]	Remove [file] from staging area
git reset --hard HEAD	Removes all local changes in working directory
git reset --hard [commit]	Reset your HEAD pointer to previous commit and discard all changes since then

BRANCHES

Key/Command	Description
git branch [branch]	Create a new branch
git checkout [branch]	Switch to that branch
git checkout [branch] -b	Create and checkout new branch
git merge [branch]	Merge [branch] into current branch
git branch -d [branch]	Deletes the [branch]
git push origin [branch]	Push [branch] to remote

REMOTE REPOSITORIES

Key/Command	Description
git remote add [name][url]	Switch to that branch
git fetch [remote][branch]	Merge [branch] into current branch
git pull [remote]	Switch to that branch
git push [remote][branch]	Create and checkout new branch

HISTORY

Key/Command	Description
git log	Lists version history for the current branch
git log --author=[name]	Lists version history for the current branch from certain author
git log --pretty=oneline	Lists compressed version history for the current branch
git show [commit]	Outputs metadata and content changes of the specified commit
git blame [file]	Shows who changed what and when in file

THE .gitignore FILE

You can list files/directories that you want to explicitely exclude from Git in a .gitignore file. This file should be placed at the root of your repository.

You might want to exclude:

• Dependency caches such as /node_modules
• Build output directories such as /build
• Hidden system files such as .DS_Store
• Personal IDE config files

Example .gitignore file:

# Comment in gitignore
node_modules/
.cache/
dist/

See more examples

PLATFORMS

The following platforms can be used to host your Git repositories.

NAME	PRICE
Github	Free
Gitlab	Free
Bitbucket	Free

GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE (GUI) CLIENTS

Is the command-line not for you? Try one of the following GUIs.

NAME	OS	PRICE
Github	Mac and Windows	Free
Source Tree	Mac and Windows	Free
Tower	MacOS and Windows	59 USD per year

RESOURCES

• Flight rules for Git - What to do when things go wrong...
• GitBook
• Git Flow