Git Commands Cheat Sheet

A comprehensive list of Git commands with descriptions for easy reference.

1. Basic Git Commands

• git init: Initializes a new Git repository in the current directory.
• git clone [repository-url]: Copies a Git repository from a remote source (like GitHub) to your local machine.
• git add [file-name]: Stages a specific file or files to be committed. You can use git add . to stage all changes.
• git commit -m "[message]": Commits the staged changes to the repository with a descriptive commit message.
• git status: Displays the status of changes as untracked, modified, or staged.
• git log: Shows the commit history, listing all past commits.
• git diff: Displays differences between various commits, or between the working directory and the last commit.

2. Branching and Merging

• git branch: Lists all local branches in the repository. The current branch is highlighted with an asterisk *.
• git branch [branch-name]: Creates a new branch with the specified name.
• git checkout [branch-name]: Switches to the specified branch.
• git checkout -b [branch-name]: Creates a new branch and switches to it.
• git merge [branch-name]: Merges the specified branch into the current branch.
• git branch -d [branch-name]: Deletes the specified branch locally.

3. Remote Repositories

• git remote -v: Lists all remote repositories linked to the local repository.
• git remote add [name] [url]: Adds a new remote repository.
• git pull [remote] [branch]: Fetches and integrates changes from a remote branch into the current branch.
• git push [remote] [branch]: Pushes the committed changes from the local branch to the specified remote branch.
• git fetch [remote]: Downloads objects and references from another repository.
• git remote rm [name]: Removes the specified remote repository.

4. Undoing Changes

• git reset [commit]: Resets the current branch to a specified commit. Use --hard to discard all changes after the specified commit or --soft to keep them staged.
• git revert [commit]: Creates a new commit that undoes the changes from the specified commit.
• git checkout -- [file-name]: Discards changes in the working directory for a specific file.
• git clean -f: Removes untracked files from the working directory.

5. Stashing

• git stash: Saves your local modifications temporarily and reverts your working directory to match the HEAD commit.
• git stash apply: Re-applies the changes saved in the stash.
• git stash pop: Applies the stash and then immediately removes it from the stash list.
• git stash list: Lists all stashes.

6. Tagging

• git tag [tag-name]: Creates a new tag for the current commit.
• git tag -a [tag-name] -m "[message]": Creates an annotated tag with a message.
• git show [tag-name]: Displays information about a specific tag.
• git push [remote] [tag-name]: Pushes a specific tag to a remote repository.

7. Configuration

• git config --global user.name "[name]": Sets the username for all repositories on your system.
• git config --global user.email "[email]": Sets the email for all repositories on your system.
• git config --list: Lists all the Git configuration settings.

8. Git Aliases

• git config --global alias.[alias-name] '[git-command]': Creates a custom alias for a Git command. For example, git config --global alias.co checkout will allow you to use git co instead of git checkout.

9. Advanced Commands

• git rebase [branch]: Re-applies commits from one branch on top of another base branch. Useful for keeping a clean commit history.
• git cherry-pick [commit]: Applies the changes from a specific commit onto the current branch.
• git bisect: Uses binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug.
• git reflog: Shows a log of changes to the local repository's reference history, including actions like commits, resets, and checkouts.

10. Collaboration Commands

• git blame [file]: Shows what revision and author last modified each line of a file.
• git shortlog: Summarizes git log output in a more human-readable format.
• git describe [commit]: Finds the most recent tag reachable from a commit.

11. Submodules

• git submodule add [repository-url] [path]: Adds a submodule to the repository.
• git submodule update --init --recursive: Clones and initializes all submodules.
• git submodule foreach [command]: Runs a command in each submodule.

12. Git Hooks

• git hooks: A directory that contains scripts which are executed at certain points in the Git workflow (e.g., pre-commit, post-commit).

13. Git Archive

• git archive [branch] --format=[zip|tar] --output=[filename]: Creates an archive of the specified branch in a specified format (zip or tar).