This post lists the git commands that a developer uses almost daily
Terminology
origin — This is a shorthand for the remote repository. If it’s a cloned repo then that original repository’s URL is called the origin. It always refers to the remote host. This is a standard and conventional name but it can be renamed to anything else.
It is possible to have multiple origins, therefore it becomes important to specify which remote you intend to pull the code from or push the code to. For e.g. you can have an origin where code changes are regularly pushed and another one for production releases.
staging area — This is like a rough draft space, it’s where you add file(s) that you want to save in your next commit. You can take files out of the staging area too, then these files will not be part of the commit.
master — The default branch name in Git is master when you create a new repo.
get the name of the remote
git remote -v → mostly it is going to be origin
rename “origin”
git remote rename origin <new_origin_name>
create a new repository
git init
This creates a default branch named master
clone a remote repository
git clone <git remote URL>
e.g
git clone https://www.example.git
create a new local branch
git checkout -b <branch_name>
switch to an existing branch on local
git checkout <branch_name>
list files to add, commit to staging area
git status
preview changes before merging
git diff
git diff <file>
git diff <source_branch> <target_branch>
list all the branches in the repo
git branch
add modified file to staging area
git add <file>
To add all the modified files in current directory use:
git add .
or, to add everything at once
git add -A
delete files from remote and filesystem
One way is to right click file → delete then execute git add <file>
or
git rm <file>
remove files from staging area
git restore --staged . → This preserves the changes that you made but takes the file out of staging area
discard your local changes
git restore <file> → discard changes in the <file>
git restore . → discard all files
git checkout <branch_name> <file> → discard your local changes and add changes from another branch
e.g. if I have conflicts in a file and I just want to discard my changes and have what is available in master branch
git checkout master <file>
to drop all your local changes and commits, fetch the latest history from the server and point your local master branch at it, do this:
git fetch origin
git reset --hard master
merge changes from another branch to your current working branch
git merge <another_branch>
This will merge local changes of <another_branch> with your current branch. If there are changes on remote but are absent in you local <another_branch> those changes won’t be merged into your current branch. To fetch and merge the remote changes use:
git pull origin <another_branch>
resolve conflicts
conflicts occur when same line is modified in 2 branches. Conflicts can occur while merging another branch into current branch, or while rebasing.
resolve merge conflicts:git checkout <branch_name> → current branchgit merge master → branch we are trying to merge into current branch
Conflicts can be fixed manually by editing the conflicted file or by discarding all changes of a particular branch and keeping changes of only 1 branch
git checkout --ours <file> → to select changes done in <branch_name>
git checkout --theirs <file> → to select changes done in the master branch
then continue the merge: git add <file> git merge --continue
resolve rebase conflicts:
Here --ours and --theirs reverse the roles
git checkout <branch_name> → current branch git rebase master → rebase from master
git checkout --ours <file> → to select changes done in <master>
git checkout --theirs <file> → to select changes done in the <branch_name>
then continue the rebase: git add <file> git rebase --continue
squash commits into one commit
git reset --soft master → if current branch is cut out from master
git commit -m "commit_msg"
commit all staged files
git commit -m "commit message"
commit all staged/unstaged files
git commit -a
push local changes on your branch to remote
git push origin <branch_name>
your branch is now on remote and is accessible over the internet not just on your system.
get latest updates, branches, tags from the remote
This won’t pull latest changes to your current working branch, but get new branches, tags that got pushed to remote
git fetch
update your local with remote changes
git pull origin
This updates the current branch that you are currently on with latest changes pushed by others working on the same repo.
This is same as the combination of git fetch and git merge
delete a branch from local
git branch -d <branch_name>
The -d option will delete the branch only if it has already been pushed and merged with the remote branch. Use -D instead if you want to force the branch to be deleted, even if it hasn't been pushed or merged yet.
To delete a branch you should be on a different branch from the branch getting deleted.
delete a branch from remote
git push origin :<branch_name>
or
git push origin --delete <branch_name>
rename a branch on local
To rename a branch switch to the branch that needs a rename and type
git branch -m <new_branch_name>
If you want to rename a branch that you are not currently on, then:
git branch -m <old_branch> <new_branch>
rename a branch on remote
Firstly, rename the branch on local then execute:
git push origin -u <new_branch_name> → -u is short hand for setting the upstream
Note: Every time you fetch updates from remote or push your changes to remote you have to mention the origin. To skip mentioning the origin all the time, you need to set the upstream:
git branch --set-upstream-to originthen you can just execute
git pullorgit pushand it will push/pull latest code from the origin.
see git history
git log → it’s a record of commits.
tagging
You can use tagging to mark a significant change, such as a release:
git tag <tag_name> <commit_id>
push tags to remote
git push --tags origin
pick selective commits from any branch
git cherry-pick <commit_sha> → choose a commit from one branch and apply it onto current branch
