Git Cheat Sheet
Role Playing Git
Dwarf Mines away, on their own, stashes all their treasure, doesn’t use it, but is happy with all that they have achieved.
Simply log away your history. You never have any crisis, but you feel good and safe with your history.
- git plugin or desktop app.
- A few command line commands just for practice:
git init, git add, git commit -a -m ‘text’
Human
Like a dwarf, but a bit more egotistical.
You like to show off a little more, so you put your treasure up on github for everyone to see.
You’re also a little selfish, like dwarves, so you aren’t collaborating.
- git plugin or desktop app.
- Use GitHub
Elf
More in touch with mystical powers and can talk to the animals (??!!??).
Cloning other repos, collaborating, and sharing your work with others.
- git plugin or desktop app
- May have started using the command line for some of the magical features
- Uses GitHub a lot as part of the workflow
Wizard
Contributor to open source research software with git+gitHub
- Uses command line exclusive.
- For some reason, is completely hopeless at using the easier to use apps
- Uses GitHub a lot
- Bends time and space with git
Vocabulary
Repository A log book for a captain A Diary for all of your work A project containing all the files
The records and information that git keeps to track your changes and versions
Commit How you put something in your diary - a single diary entry Tell git to log and record the changes made since the last entry
Master The name for the default “universe”
Hunk A location in your code where Git has detected changes
Branch Parallel Universe
Master Branch Original version
Merge Put history of one branch into another
Origin Online parallel universe
HEAD Is a reference to the last commit in the currently checked-out branch. OR, a reference to wherever you are in your history
Working Tree / Working Directory The actual files, with all the changes you’ve made, whether you have committed them or not. Basically, the files on your hard drive, before git did anything
Staging Area / Index Intermediate collection of files and changes prepared to all be committed together. Useful for excluding some changes that you don’t want to commit just yet Ignore for now if you like.
Repository All the versions and changes and metadata git has recorded for you
General commands (for UNIX)
Help or Manual
man [command]
List
ls
List what is here
Change Directory
cd [directory]
Change to specified directory
cd ..
Change to the directory above. The double dots means ‘directory above’
Where am I
pwd
Print working directory … the directory we are in now.
Make A New Directory
mkdir [new directory name]
Make a new directory in the directory that you are currently in.
Copy
cp [original file] [new file]
Copy the original file to a file named what you specify in “new file” File specifications can include whole directories too: “/my_folder/file.txt”
Move
mv [original file] [new file]
Much like cp, but doesn’t copy the file into a new one, just moves it.
Remove or Delete
rm [file] rm -r [directory]
Remove (or delete) a file or directory. This is permanent! Using the “-r” flag is necessary for directories
Git commands
Help
General Help
git help
Help for specific command
git help [command]
git help commit
Look up General Help
git help -a
list all subcommands. Useful for when you can’t quite remember which command you want to use.
git help -g
list general guides including a tutorial and suggested workflows
git help glossary
Search for a term by pressing “/” then your word, and enter. Go to each find with “n” or “N” to go backwards. See Using the Reader (less) for more.
Using the Reader (called less)
The above help commands automatically use a reading app for the terminal called less. To navigate and search the file you’ve just opened, the following commands will be helpful.
Getting Help
| key or command | action |
|---|---|
| h | read help file |
Moving around
| key or command | action |
|---|---|
| j | 1 line down |
| k | 1 line up |
| d | 1/2 window down |
| u | 1/2 window up |
| G | bottom of file |
| g | top of file |
Searching
| key or command | action |
|---|---|
| /[text] | search for text in file (hit enter to search) |
| n | scroll to next hit |
| N | scroll to previous hit |
Setting up your local git program
Configure your user name
git config –global user.name [My Name]
Lets git know who you are If you ever collaborate with others, this way people can know which commits are yours.
Configure your email
git config –global user.email my.email@myEmailProvider.com
Tell Git your email address Create a config file in your home directory
Change default text editor
git config –global core.editor “atom –wait”
Add Aliases
Aliases are sub-commands of your own making which run a custom, and often long, git command that you define.
Useful for making short versions of common commands, or for saving long complicated commands on speed dial for quick recall.
git config –global alias.quick_commit “commit -a -m “whatever, get it done!”
Now, git quick_commit will run the above command.
Notice the lack of a git in the quotation marks
Listing All Configuration Options
git config –global -l
Editing Config File
git config –global -e
An Alias for listing all aliases
git config –global alias.alias “config –global –get-regexp alias”
Starting a Git Repository
git init
Create that hidden .git directory so Git is ready to start working with your project.
git status
“Hey Git, what’s up right now?” Displays general information about your current repository.
Adding files and Committing Changes
Your Captain’s Log or Diary
Add a File
git add [file]
Tell git to now keep records on a file so you can commit changes you’ve made to it.
Commit a Change
git commit -m “Commit message here”
Whatever changes you’ve made (and added to the staging area), commit them with the note or message provided after the “-m” flag.
Commit ALL Changes without adding to the Staging Area
git commit -a -m ‘Added first verse’
The “-a” flag means: git-add, then do commit Only works for changes to files that have previously been added. If you want to commit changes to a new file, you have to add as above, then you can use the above.
Seeing your History
See the log
git log
shows captain’s log activity
git log –oneline
Show the git log in a more concise form.
Seeing Differences between changes or commits
git diff
Shows differences between current uncommitted changes and those of the most recent commit
git diff [path]
Shows differences only for file specified by path
git diff [commit] [commit]
Shows differences between two specified locations in your history (including branches etc)
git diff –word-diff
Show differences in terms of changes words, not changed lines
Advanced History Searching
git log –stat
git log –shortstat
git log –numstat
numbers on what changes have been made
git blame [path]
Shows only the commits that affect the file defined by path
git log -n x
limit the number of commits you see from your history to x
git log [–after –before]
- Date:
- ‘YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM::SS +1000’
- ‘YYYY-MM-DD’
- ‘7 years 5 months 3 days 2 hours ago’
Specify a time period of your history to look at
git log –grep [pattern]
pattern is in the message for the commit
git log -S [pattern]
pattern has been added or deleted (in change log) in actual text
git log -G [pattern]
Pattern occurs in change log in actual text
git log -L [start],[end]:file
Shows commits that affected the specified line range of the specified file (with respect to present file line numbers)
git log –diff-filter [A,D,M, …]
See commits that affected files in a particular way (ie, added a file, modified, deleted, etc)
Using your History
Time Travel
Moving through Time
Going back in time to a previous commit
git checkout [unique change id]
Goes back to the state of your files at this commit Lets you look at your files as they were at this time, and run code if you need to
Going back to the present
git checkout master
Here, master is referring to the branch name. If on another, you need to specify that branch
Changing History
Cancelling previous commits
git revert [unique change id]
The “Unique Change ID” is what the commands “git log” give you for each commit Cancels the changes made in a particular commit, and adds a new commit recording this reversal of changes
Undoing Work before its committed
git checkout HEAD – [file]
Any changes not committed will be discarded
Re-Writing History
git revert SHA
git reset SHA
- soft (kind of default)
- hard
- all with possibility of specifying path
Making and Using Branches
Parallel Universes
List all Current Branches
git branch
Make a new Branch
git branch [branch name]
Go to a branch
git checkout [branch name]
Merge the History of a branch into the current branch
git merge [branch name]
Takes the history of “branch name” and merges that into the branch you are current in. Running “git branch” before, to confirm which branch you’re in maybe helpful. If there are different changes in each branch that can’t be merged, ie that conflict with each other, you will get a conflict that needs to be resolved.
Syncing with GitHub
Sharing your repositories online
List current Remotes
git remote -v
Add your GitHub (or other) repository to your local repository
git remote add [name] [URL]
Adds the URL of your online Repo to your local repo under the name you provide. Within Git, this is the name of the remote that you are using
Put your Local History onto your Online Repo
git push [remote name] [branch]
Takes all of the history of the branch you specify and adds it to the remote you specify This history is put into a branch of the same name as your local one, the one you specify.
Bring changes that are on your online repo into your local Repo
git pull [remote name] [branch]
Here, “branch” specifies the branch name in the GitHub account (which will generally be the same name as the one on your local computer, as it will have been created by you doing “git push” as above)
Will take the history of the “branch” on “remote name” and merge it into the branch you are currently in