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Basic Git Commands

Basic Git Commands

Mark Lucernas
2020-07-29

Basic Git Commands

Init

Initialize local git repository.

Create new local git repo

  • git init

Clone

Clone or download remote repository.

Cloning remote repository

  • git clone https://github.com/<repo-owner>/<repository>.git [cloned-repo-name]

[cloned-repo-name] is optional to name the repository directory other than the original name from the remote.

Status, Add, Commit and Log

Check git local repo status

  • git status

Stage new changes for commit

  • git add <filename>
  • git add . – Adds all from the current directory (including subdirectories)

Commit staged changes

  • git commit – Default CLI editor will open commit message
  • git commit -m "Add helpful commit message here"

Display commit history

  • git log

50/72 rule suggest to compose not more than 50 characters (72 MAX) commit message for cleaner commit history.

Ref:

Push

Pushing commits to remote branch

  • git push – push all commits to remote branch
  • git push --force – forcefully push all commits to remote branch. This will rewrite commit history of remote branch if local branch diverged.

Pull

Updates local branch of new changes from remote branch

Pull new changes from remote branch

  • git pull
  • git pull --all – update all local branches

Fetch

Fetch new changes from remote branch without applying those changes yet.

Fetch new changes from remote branch

  • git fetch
  • git fetch --all – fetch all local branches

Display new changes from remote branch after fetching

git log origin/<branch-name> ^<branch-name>

# or
git log --oneline --decorate origin/<branch-name>

# or for files which will be modified with `git pull`
git fetch && git diff HEAD @{u} --name-only

# or all the difference between the current version and the incoming
git fetch && git diff @{u} --name-only

Diff local branch against new changes from remote branch after fetching

  • git diff <branch-name> origin/<branch-name>

Checking out latest commits from remote branch after fetching

git fetch
git checkout <branch-name> origin/<branch-name>

Ref:

Branch

Branch other than the master branch to work on the code base without affecting the remote main branch (master). Use merge or rebase to apply changes from one branch to another.

Display all local branches

  • git branch

Display all local and remote branches

  • git branch -a

Renaming current branch

git branch -m <new-branch-name>
git push origin -u <new-branch-name>
git push origin --delete <old-branch-name>

Switching local repo to different branch

  • git checkout <branch-name>

Creating new branch

  • git branch <new-branch>
  • git checkout -b <new-branch> – Creates new branch and checkout.

Pushing newly created local branch into remote repository

  • git push -u origin <branch-name>

Delete existing branch (Only locally)

  • git branch -d <branch-name> – Wont work if theres unmerged changes
  • git branch -D <branch-name> – Force delete while theres still unmerged changes

Delete existing branch from remote after local deletion

  • git push origin --delete <remote-branch-name>

Using checkout command to dispose changes (replacing local changes with server copy).
WARNING: This cannot be undone.

  • git checkout <filename>
  • git checkout . – Will dispose all changes in current directory

Ref:

Checkout

Checking out to previous commits

  • git checkout <commit-sha> – Checkout to previous commit. <commit-sha> is the unique commit SHA digits of the commit. Can be found in git log
  • git checkout <branch-name> – Going back to latest commit in branch

NOTE: git reflog can also be a checkout reference point.

Checkout back to last checkout point

  • git checkout -

Ref:

Merge

Merge changes of one branch to another branch.

Merging branch to master branch

git checkout master
git merge <branch-name>

Merging master branch to another branch

git checkout <branch-name>
git merge master

Ref:

Rebase

Rebase (re-anchor) current branch commit history against another branch to latest changes.

Rebase a branch against master branch

git checkout <branch-name>
git rebase master

Rebase master branch against another branch

git checkout master
git rebase <branch-name>

Undoing rebase

  • git reflog – Logs all reference point to reset into
  • git reset --hard HEAD@{<ref-log-number>} – Reset back to specific references
  • Sample: git reset --hard HEAD@{5} will reset 5 reference point back

Ref:

Stash

Changes that are not ready to be committed but wants to revert back to previous commits without loosing those changes can be stashed. It will be saved in a temporary space and can be accessed and applied at anytime and any branch or commit history.

Stashing current changes

  • git stash
  • git stash save "<message>" – With stash message

NOTE: You can add the -p flag to interactively select hunks from diff or changes.

NOTE: Stashing changes will be kept until “unstashed” applied. git status or git diff will not show the changes that has been stashed.

Listing all stashed changes

  • git stash list

Show all stashed changes

  • git stash show – Show changes from the first stash on the git stash list
  • git stash show stash@{<stash-number>} – Show changes of specific stash on the git stash list

Applying stashed changes

  • git stash apply – Applies the first stash on the git stash list
  • git stash apply stash@{<stash-number>} – Apply specific stash from git stash list

NOTE: Applying stash does not delete the stash.

Drops (delete) a stash

  • git stash drop – Drop the first stash on the git stash list
  • git stash drop stash@{<stash-number>} – Drop specific stash from git stash list
  • git stash clear – Drops all stash

Apply and drop (delete) stash

  • git stash pop – Apply and drop the first stash on the git stash list
  • git stash pop stash@{<stash-number>} – Apply and drop specific stash from git stash list

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Clean

Cleans the working tree by recursively removing files that are not under version control, starting from the current directory.

[path] is optional

  • git clean [path] – Clean working tree directory (non-recursive)
  • git clean -d [path] – Clean working tree recursively
  • git clean -i [path] – Clean working tree interactively
  • git clean -f [path] – Clean working tree forcefully
  • git clean -n [path] – Dry-run clean working tree

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Forking Repos

Make a copy of someone else’s repository and make it as your own. You can make pull requests to propose updates from your fork to the original repository, once approved by the original owner, will merge all commits in forked repo from when the pull request was made.

Updating your Fork

# add the original repository as remote repository called "upstream"
git remote add upstream https://github.com/<original-owner>/<repository>.git

# fetch all changes from the upstream repository
git fetch upstream

# switch to the master branch of your fork
git checkout master

# merge changes from the upstream repository into your fork
git merge upstream/master

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