Git Cheatsheet

Places Your Source Can Exist

Stash
A place to hide modifications while you work on something else
Workspace
Local checkout
Index
Files you want to commit. Before you "commit" (check in) files, you need to first add them to the index. Also called "current directory cache", "staging area", cache" or "staged files"
Local Repository
A subdirectory named .git that contains all of your necessary repository files -- a Git repository skeleton. Typical branches: master, feature-x, bugfix-y
Upstream Repository
Versions of your project that are hosted on the Internet or network, ensuring that all your changes are available for other developers. The default name is origin. Typical branches here: master, shared-feature-x, release-y

Common Commands

git init
Initializes the current directory as a new git repository. Creates the hidden .git folder and its various subdirectories
git status
Displays paths that have differences between the index file and the current HEAD commit, paths that have differences between the workspace and the index file, and paths in the workspace that are not tracked by git.
git remote add origin https://github.com/Bruce6110/newspaper.git
Establishes the specified github path as the remote location of this project. (Note: Github repo must already exist)
git remote set-url origin https://github.com/Bruce6110/newspaper_project.git
Change the remote url for a project. (Note: Github repo must already exist)
git diff
Displays the differences not added to the index.
git diff commit or branch
View the changes you have in your workspace relative to the named commit. You can use HEAD to compare it with the latest commit, or a branch name to compare with the tip of a different branch
git add file... or dir...
Adds the current content of new or modified files to the index, thus staging that content for inclusion in the next commit. Use add --interactive to add the modified contents in the workspace interactively to the index.
git add -u
Adds the current content of modified (NOT NEW) files to the index. This is similar to what 'git commit -a' does in preparation for making a commit.
git rm file(s)...
Remove a file from the workspace and the index.
git mv file(s)...
Move file in the workspace and the index.
git commit -a -m 'msg'
Commit all files changed since your last commit, except untracked files (ie. all files that are already listed in the index). Remove files in the index that have been removed from the workspace.
git checkout files(s)... or dir
Updates the file or directory in the workspace. Does NOT switch branches.
git reset HEAD file(s)...
Remove the specified files from the next commit. Resets the index but not the working tree (i.e., the changed files are preserved but not marked for commit) and reports what has not been updated.
git reset --soft HEAD^
Undo the last commit, leaving changes in the index.
git reset --hard
Matches the workspace and index to the local tree. WARNING: Any changes to tracked files in the working tree since commit are lost. Use this if merging has resulted in conflicts and you'd like to start over. Pass ORIG_HEAD to undo the most recent successful merge and any changes after.
git checkout branch
Switches branches by updating the index and workspace to reflect the specified branch, branch, and updating HEAD to be branch.
git checkout -b name of new branch
Create a branch and switch to it
git merge commit or branch
Merge changes from branch name into current branch.
Use ‑‑no-commit to leave changes uncommitted.
git rebase upstream
Reverts all commits since the current branch diverged from upstream, and then re-applies them one-by-one on top of changes from the HEAD of upstream.
git cherry-pick commit
Integrate changes in the given commit into the current branch.
git revert commit
Reverse commit specified by commit and commit the result. This requires your working tree to be clean (no modifications from the HEAD commit).
git diff --cached commit
View the changes you staged vs the latest commit. Can pass a commit to see changes relative to it.
git commit -m 'msg'
Stores the current contents of the index in a new commit along with a log message from the user describing the changes.
git commit --amend
Modify the last commit with the current index changes.
git log
Show recent commits, most recent on top. Options:
‑‑decorate with branch and tag names on appropriate commits
‑‑stat with stats (files changed, insertions, and deletions)
‑‑author= author only by a certain author
‑‑after="MMM DD YYYY" ex. ("Jun 20 2008") only commits after a certain date
‑‑before="MMM DD YYYY" only commits that occur before a certain date
‑‑merge only the commits involved in the current merge conflicts
git diff commit commit
View the changes between two arbitrary commits
git branch
List all existing branches. Option -r causes the remote-tracking branches to be listed, and option -a shows both.
git branch -d branch
Delete an specified branch. Use -D to force.
git branch --track new remote/branch
Create a new local branch that tracks a remote branch.
git clone repo
Download the repository specified by repo and checkout HEAD of the master branch.
git pull remote refspec
Incorporates changes from a remote repository into the current branch. In its default mode, git pull is shorthand for git fetch followed by git merge FETCH_HEAD.
git reset --hard remote/ branch
Reset local repo and working tree to match a remote branch. Use reset ‑‑hard origin/master to throw away all commits to the local master branch. Use this to start over on a failed merge.
git fetch remote refspec
Download objects and refs from another repository.
git push
update the server with your commits across all branches that are *COMMON* between your local copy and the server.Local branches that were never pushed to the server in the first place are not shared
git push remote branch
Push new (or existing) branch to remote repository
git push remote branch: branch
Push new branch to remote repository with a different name
git branch -r
List remote branches
git push remote : branch
Remove a remote branch. Literally @quot;push nothing to this branch@quot;
git clean
Cleans the working tree by recursively removing files that are not under version control, starting from the current directory.
git stash save msg
Save your local modifications to a new stash, and run git reset ‑‑hard to revert them. The msg part is optional and gives the description along with the stashed state. For quickly making a snapshot, you can omit both "save" and msg.
git stash apply stash
Move changes from the specified stash into the workspace. The latest stash is the default.
git stash pop
Applies the changes from the last (or specified) stash and then removes the given stash.
git stash list
List the stashes that you currently have.
git stash show stash
Show the changes recorded in the stash as a diff between the stashed state and its original parent. When no stash is given, shows the latest one.
git stash drop stash
Remove a single stashed state from the stash list. When no stash is given, it removes the latest one.
git stash clear
Remove all the stashed states. Note that those states will then be subject to pruning, and may be impossible to recover.
git stash branch branchname stash
Creates and checks out a new branch named branchname starting from the commit at which the stash was originally created, applies the changes recorded in stash to the new working tree and index.
If that succeeds, and stash is a reference of the form stash@{ revision}, it then drops the stash. When no stash is given, applies the latest one.
This is useful if the branch on which you ran git stash save has changed enough that git stash apply fails due to conflicts. Since the stash is applied on top of the commit that was HEAD at the time git stash was run, it restores the originally stashed state with no conflicts.