Git cheatsheet

Git is one of the version control systems, and it's a prerequisite for development jobs. This post covers most of the git commands I use.

Configuration

• Set user configuration for every project if you use multiple accounts

    git config user.name "<USERNAME>"
    git config user.email "<EMAIL_ADDRESS>"
  

• Use the current branch for push commands

    git config --global push.default current
  

SSH keys setup

• Generate separate SSH keys for Github and Bitbucket with the following command, type the filename path and passphrase.

    ssh-keygen
  

• Add generated public keys to Github and Bitbucket

• Run the following commands to activate SSH keys

    eval `ssh-agent -s`
    ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_github
    ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_bitbucket
  

Basic commands

• The repository setup

  • Initialize a git repository

      git init
    

  • Clone an existing repository

      # git clone <REPOSITORY_URL>
      git clone git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git
    

  • Add the remote repository

      # git remote add <REMOTE_NAME> <REPOSITORY_URL>
      git remote add origin git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git
      git remote add upstream git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git
    

  • Update the URL for the remote repository

      # git remote set-url <REMOTE_NAME> <REPOSITORY_URL>
      git remote set-url origin git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git
    

  • Get a list of configured remote connections

      git remote -v
    

• Branches

  • Get a list of the branches

      git branch
    

  • Create and switch to the new branch

      git checkout -b new-branch
    

  • Checkout to a specific commit and create a new branch out of it

      git log # find a hash from a specific commit
      git checkout <COMMIT_HASH>
      git switch -c <NEW_BRANCH_NAME>
    

  • Switch to another branch

      git checkout existing-branch
    

  • Rename the current branch

      git branch -m <NEW_BRANCH_NAME>
    

  • Delete branch

      git branch -D other-existing-branch
    

  • Fetch all the remote branches

      git fetch --all
    

• Get the status of the local changes

    git status
  

• Add new changes

    git add some-file.js
    git add .
  

• Commits

  • Commit the changes

      git commit -m "Commit message"
    

  • Empty commit without any files

      git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger CI pipeline"
    

  • Commit the changes and skip running git hooks

      git commit -m "Commit message" --no-verify
    

  • Update the latest commit message and add new changes to the latest commit

      git commit -m "Commit message" --amend
    

• Push the changes to the remote repository

  • Push the changes to the current branch when the current branch is configured as the default one

      git push
    

  • Push the changes to the remote branch

      # git push <REMOTE_NAME> <BRANCH_NAME>
      git push origin master
    

  • Force push the changes to the feature branch

      # git push <REMOTE_NAME> <FEATURE_BRANCH_NAME>
      git push origin feature-branch -f
    

• Fetch and merge remote changes to the local branch

    # git pull <REMOTE_NAME> <BRANCH_NAME>
    git pull origin master
  

• Remove (unstage) the changes from the local stage

    git reset some-file.js
    git reset
  

• Differences between commits

  • Get a difference compared to the latest commit

      git diff some-file.js
      git diff
    

  • Get a difference between the last two commits

      git diff HEAD^ HEAD
    

• Revert the file changes

    git checkout -- some-file.js
  

• Merge the specified branch into the current one

    git merge <BRANCH_NAME>
  

• Revert specific commit. The following command creates a new commit

    git revert <COMMIT_HASH>
  

Miscellaneous

• Resets

  • Soft reset (commits are removed, but changes from the removed commits are staged)

      # git reset --soft HEAD~{NUMBER_OF_COMMITS_TO_SOFT_REMOVE}
      git reset --soft HEAD~2
    

  • Hard reset (both commits and changes are removed)

      # git reset --hard HEAD~{NUMBER_OF_COMMITS_TO_HARD_REMOVE}
      git reset --hard HEAD~1 # equal as git reset --hard HEAD^
    

  • Get the latest remote changes when pulling doesn't work

      git reset --hard origin/<BRANCH_NAME>
    

• Stashing

    git add .
    git stash save <STASH_NAME>
    git stash list
    git stash apply --index 0
  

• Tags

  • Remove the following tag locally

      git tag -d v0.13.29
    

• Find removed commits

    git reflog
    git checkout <COMMIT_HASH>
  

• Remove the initial commit

    git update-ref -d HEAD
  

• Patching

  • Create a patch from the latest commits

      # git format-patch -{NUMBER_OF_COMMITS}
      git format-patch -1
    

  • Apply the patches

      git apply 0001-latest-commit.patch
    

• Git submodules

  • Add git submodule

      # git submodule add -- <REPOSITORY_URL> <DIRECTORY_PATH>
      git submodule add -- git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git template
    

  • Retrieve the latest changes for the git submodule

      # git submodule update --remote <DIRECTORY_PATH>
      git submodule update --remote template