Git cheat sheet

Introduction

This is not a comprehensive guide to Git commands, but a notebook I made for myself to quickly find the ones I have not used in a while and may have forgotten. For a comprehensive and up-to-date reference, check out the Git docs¹ or the Git Pro book².

Use the table of contents to quickly jump to the topic you’re interested in.

Setup and configuration

Install Git

Git installer

Get the installer from the official website³.

WinGet⁴

winget install --id Git.Git

Update Git

WinGet⁴.

winget update --id Git.Git

Git

git update-git-for-windows

Check Git version

git --version

Configure Git

View all configurations

# List all variables
git config list

# List variables from current repository only
git config list --local

# List global variables
git config list --global

View and set specific configurations

# View username and email configured globally
git config --global user.name
git config --global user.email

# Set username and email globally
git config --global user.name "first last"
git config --global user.email "user@gmail.com"

# View username and email for current repository
git config user.name
git config user.email

# Set  username and email for current repository
git config user.name "first last"
git config user.email "user@gmail.com"

See related recipe on how to Update user email after committing the wrong one.

Manage repository

Create repository

git init .

Clone a repository

git clone https://github.com/kungfux/project.git

Make changes

Add files to staging

# Add all changes
git add .

# Add files by mask
git add *.cs

# Add ignored file
git add -f ignored.file

# Add new filepath only
git add -N new.file

Commit changes

# Commit with a message
git commit -m "My message"

# Automatically stage modified and removed files and commit
git commit -a

# Reuse commit info from the log
git commit -c

Align changes

Rebase

# Align changes with `main` branch
git checkout feature/my-feature
git rebase main
git push --force-with-lease

# Interactive rebase
git rebase -i main

# Rebase a branch onto a different branch
git rebase –onto new-branch-name old-branch-name

Copy changes

Merge

Please check the section on Merge branches.

Cherry-pick

# Copy commit
git cherry-pick <hash>

# Copy commit changes without committing
git cherry-pick -n <hash>

Undo changes

Staged changes

# Unstage a file
git reset staged-file-name.txt

Uncommitted changes

# Undo changes for a single file
git checkout -- file.name

# Undo changes for all files
git checkout -- .

# Remove untracked files
git clean -df

# Remove untracked and ignored files
git clean -dfX

# Show what would be removed
git clean -n

Committed changes

# Update last commit
git commit --amend

# Revert to a previous state by removing commits
git commit -m "Something terribly misguided"
git reset HEAD~
# ... edit files as necessary ...
git add .
git commit -c ORIG_HEAD

# Undo reset HEAD~
git reset HEAD@{1}

# Create a commit right away undoing changes
git revert <hash>

# Undo a commit and leave changes uncommitted
git revert -n 3ec5bed

# Abort incomplete reverting
git revert --abort

Postpone changes

Create stash

# Stash tracked changes only
git stash

# Stash with untracked changes
git stash -u

# Stash with untracked and ignored files
git stash -a

# Stash changes with a comment
git stash -m “My changes”

View stashes

# View stashes list
git stash list

# View stash summary
git stash show stash@{0}

# View stash details
git stash show -p stash@{0}

Apply stash

# Apply stash and preserve it in list
git stash apply stash@{0}

# Apply last stash and remove it
git stash pop

Remove stash

# Remove stash
 git stash drop stash@{0}

Share changes

Share as a patch file

# Create `name.patch` patch file with changes produced by `diff`
git diff > name.patch
git diff HEAD > name.patch

# Include new file into patch
git add -N new-file.txt

# Create patch for last commit
git diff HEAD^ HEAD > name.patch

Apply patch

git apply name.patch

Inspect changes

Check repository state

git status

Show uncommitted changes

# Show changes for tracked but not staged changes
git diff

# Show changes for the file
git diff changed.file

Compare changes between commits

# Show changes from last commit
git diff HEAD^ HEAD

# Compare two commits
git diff <hash1> <hash2>

Compare changes between branches

# Compare `main` and `dev` branches
git diff main..dev

View commit history

# Show history
git log --graph --abbrev-commit

# Show changes for a particular file
git log file.name

# Show changes for a particular folder
git log folder-name/

# View commit details and diff
git show 3a5sd4

# View per line author information
git blame -w file.name

Branching and merging

Create branch

git checkout -b feature/new-feature

Rename branch

# Rename local branch
git branch -m new-name

Switch branches

# Switch to a branch
git checkout branch-name

# Switch back
git checkout -

Merge branches

# Merge branch into current one
git checkout main
git merge feature/my-feature

# Squash merge
git checkout main
git merge --squash feature/my-feature
git commit -m "Add feature X (squashed commit)"

Delete branches

# Delete local branch if it's merged in the upstream
git branch -d branch-name

# Delete local branch anyways
git branch -D branch-name

Remote repositories

List remotes

# List all remotes
git remote show

# Show details on `origin` remote
git remote show origin

Add remote

# Add remote for the first time
git remote add origin https://github.com/kungfux/project.git

# Add remote with a new name
git remote add new-home https://github.com/kungfux/project.git

Push changes to remote

git push -u origin branch-name

Fetch and pull from remote

# Fetch updates from remote
git fetch

# Get updates from remote
git pull

Remove remote branch

git push origin --delete branch-name

Remove remote

git remote remove origin

Recipes

Update user email after committing the wrong one

git config user.email "kungfux@users.noreply.github.com"
git commit --amend --reset-author --no-edit
git push

Move git repository to new home

git remote add new-home https://github.com/kungfux/project.git
git push --all new-home
git push --tags new-home
git remote remove origin
git remote rename new-home origin

Skip SSL verification for a single command

git -c http.sslVerify=false clone https://github.com/kungfux/project.git

Visual tools

The routine operations and diff are easier to execute from GUI applications. The applications like VS Code, GitHub Desktop and maybe others made a great job on making interaction with Git a much easier. Here are some tools I would recommend:

• VS Code⁵
• VS Code extensions
  • mhutchie.git-graph
  • pomber.git-file-history
• GitHub Desktop⁶

References

1. Git Docs ↩︎

2. Pro Git Book ↩︎

3. Git downloads ↩︎

4. WinGet ↩︎ ↩︎²

5. VS Code ↩︎

6. GitHub Desktop ↩︎