Git Cheat Sheet

Set the name and email that will be attached to your commits and tags:

git config --global user.name "your-username"
git config --global user.email "youremail@gmail.com"

Create a local repo (initialize the current directory as a git repo):

git init <directory>

Download a remote repo:

git clone <url>

Add a file to staging:

git add <file>

Stage all files:

git add .

Commit all staged files to git:

git commit -m "commit message"

Add changes to tracked files to staging:

git commit -am "commit message"

To remove a file from your GitHub repository, follow these steps:

1. Remove the file from your local repository using the git rm command:

git rm <file_path>

2. Commit the changes to your local repository:

git commit -m "Removed <file_path>"

3. Push the changes to your remote GitHub repository:

git push origin <branch_name>

If you want to remove the file from version control but keep it in your local file system, use:

git rm --cached <file_path>

To retrieve a file from a previous commit in your Git repository, follow these steps:

1. Find the commit hash that contains the version of the file you want. Use:

git log --oneline

2. Checkout the file from the specific commit using:

git checkout <commit_hash> -- <file_path>

3. Optionally, commit the changes if you want to keep the retrieved version:

git add <file_path>
git commit -m "Reverted <file_path> to version from <commit_hash>"
git push origin <branch_name>

To change the remote repository URL in your Git repository, follow these steps:

1. View the current remote URL (optional):

git remote -v

2. Change the remote URL using the set-url command:

git remote set-url origin <new_url>

3. Verify the change (optional):

git remote -v

• master: Default development branch
• origin: Default remote name
• HEAD: Current branch
• HEAD^: Parent of HEAD
• HEAD~4: 4th commit back from HEAD

List all local branches (add -r flag to show all remote branches, -a to show all branches):

git branch

Create a new branch:

git branch <new-branch>

Switch to a branch and update the working directory:

git checkout <branch>

Create a new branch and switch to it:

git checkout -b <new-branch>

Delete a merged branch:

git branch -d <branch>

Delete a branch, whether merged or not:

git branch -D <branch>

Add a tag to current commit (use -a to tag new releases):

git tag <tag-name>

Merge a branch into a branch B (add --no-ff to avoid fast-forward merge):

git merge <branch>

Merge and rebase all commits at once (single commit):

git merge --squash <branch>

Rebase feature branch onto main to incorporate new changes made to main (prevents unnecessary merge commits into feature, keeping history linear):

git checkout feature
git rebase main

Iteratively clean up a branch's commits before rebasing onto main:

git rebase -i main

Iteratively rebase the last 3 commits in the current branch:

git rebase -i Head~3

Move (and/or rename) a file and stage it:

git mv <existing-path> <new-path>

Remove a file from the working directory and from staging area, then stage the deletion:

git rm <file>

Reset a file or a commit:

• Reset a file from staging area only:

git reset <file>

• Reset the index and working directory to a specific commit (read-only):

git reset --hard <commit_ID>

Revert a commit by creating a new commit:

git revert <commit_ID>

Restore file to a specific commit (leaves staging alone):

git checkout <commit_ID> <file>

List new or modified files not yet committed:

git status

List commit history, with respective IDs:

git log --oneline

Show changes to unstaged files (to changes of staged files, add --cached option):

git diff

Show changes between two commits:

git diff commit1_ID commit2_ID

Store modified and staged changes (to include untracked files, add -u flag. For untracked & ignored files, add -a):

git stash

As above, but add a comment:

git stash save "comment"

Partial stash (stash just single file):

git stash push -p

List all stashes:

git stash list

Apply stash:

git stash apply stash@{1}

Delete stash at index 1 (omit stash@{n} to delete the last stash):

git stash drop stash@{1}

Clear all stashes:

git stash clear

Add a remote repo:

git remote add <alias> <url>

View all remote connections (add -v to view full URLs):

git remote

Remove a connection:

git remote remove <alias>

Rename a connection:

git remote rename <old> <new>

Fetch all branches from remote repo (no merge):

git fetch <alias>

Fetch a specific branch:

git fetch <alias> <branch>

Merge fetched changes into current branch:

git pull

Push all branches to remote repo:

git push <alias> <branch>

This cheat sheet summarizes the most common Git commands and operations. For more detailed information, refer to the official Git documentation.