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  4. Useful Git Commands

Useful Git Commands

For those looking to use the most popular repository storage site in software development, check out these commands that will get you started.

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Naresh Joshi user avatar
Naresh Joshi
DZone Core CORE ·
Jan. 30, 19 · Presentation
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Git is a most widely used and powerful version control system for tracking changes in computer files and coordinating work on those files among multiple people. It is primarily used for source code management in software development, but it can be used to keep track of changes in any set of files.

Git was developed by Linus Torvalds in 2005 as an distributed open source software version control software and of course it is free to use. As a distributed revision control system it is aimed at speed, data integrity, and support for distributed, non-linear work flows.

While other version control systems e.g. CVS, SVN keeps most of their data like commit logs on central server, every git repository on every computer is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full version tracking abilities, independent of network access or a central server.

However almost all IDEs support git out of the box and we do not require submit the git commands manually but it is always good to understand these commands. Below is a list of some git commands to work efficiently with git.

Git Help

The most useful command in git is git help which provides us all the help we require. If we type git help in terminal, we will get:

usage: git [--version] [--help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
           [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
           [-p | --paginate | --no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
           [--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
           <command> [<args>]

These are common Git commands used in various situations:

start a working area (see also: git help tutorial)
   clone      Clone a repository into a new directory
   init       Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one

work on the current change (see also: git help everyday)
   add        Add file contents to the index
   mv         Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink
   reset      Reset current HEAD to the specified state
   rm         Remove files from the working tree and from the index

examine the history and state (see also: git help revisions)
   bisect     Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug
   grep       Print lines matching a pattern
   log        Show commit logs
   show       Show various types of objects
   status     Show the working tree status

grow, mark and tweak your common history
   branch     List, create, or delete branches
   checkout   Switch branches or restore working tree files
   commit     Record changes to the repository
   diff       Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
   merge      Join two or more development histories together
   rebase     Reapply commits on top of another base tip
   tag        Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG

collaborate (see also: git help workflows)
   fetch      Download objects and refs from another repository
   pull       Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch
   push       Update remote refs along with associated objects

'git help -a' and 'git help -g' list available sub-commands and some concept guides.
See 'git help <command>' or 'git help <concept>' to read about a specific sub-command or concept.


Command git help -a will give us complete list of git commands:

Available git commands in '/usr/local/git/libexec/git-core'
  add                     gc                      receive-pack
  add--interactive        get-tar-commit-id       reflog
  am                      grep                    remote
  annotate                gui                     remote-ext
  apply                   gui--askpass            remote-fd
  archimport              gui--askyesno           remote-ftp
  archive                 gui.tcl                 remote-ftps
  askpass                 hash-object             remote-http
  bisect                  help                    remote-https
  bisect--helper          http-backend            repack
  blame                   http-fetch              replace
  branch                  http-push               request-pull
  bundle                  imap-send               rerere
  cat-file                index-pack              reset
  check-attr              init                    rev-list
  check-ignore            init-db                 rev-parse
  check-mailmap           instaweb                revert
  check-ref-format        interpret-trailers      rm
  checkout                log                     send-email
  checkout-index          ls-files                send-pack
  cherry                  ls-remote               sh-i18n--envsubst
  cherry-pick             ls-tree                 shortlog
  citool                  mailinfo                show
  clean                   mailsplit               show-branch
  clone                   merge                   show-index
  column                  merge-base              show-ref
  commit                  merge-file              stage
  commit-tree             merge-index             stash
  config                  merge-octopus           status
  count-objects           merge-one-file          stripspace
  credential              merge-ours              submodule
  credential-manager      merge-recursive         submodule--helper
  credential-store        merge-resolve           subtree
  credential-wincred      merge-subtree           svn
  cvsexportcommit         merge-tree              symbolic-ref
  cvsimport               mergetool               tag
  daemon                  mktag                   unpack-file
  describe                mktree                  unpack-objects
  diff                    mv                      update
  diff-files              name-rev                update-git-for-windows
  diff-index              notes                   update-index
  diff-tree               p4                      update-ref
  difftool                pack-objects            update-server-info
  difftool--helper        pack-redundant          upload-archive
  fast-export             pack-refs               upload-pack
  fast-import             patch-id                var
  fetch                   prune                   verify-commit
  fetch-pack              prune-packed            verify-pack
  filter-branch           pull                    verify-tag
  fmt-merge-msg           push                    web--browse
  for-each-ref            quiltimport             whatchanged
  format-patch            read-tree               worktree
  fsck                    rebase                  write-tree
  fsck-objects            rebase--helper


And command git help -g will give us a list git concepts which git think is good for us:

The common Git guides are:

   attributes   Defining attributes per path
   everyday     Everyday Git With 20 Commands Or So
   glossary     A Git glossary
   ignore       Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
   modules      Defining submodule properties
   revisions    Specifying revisions and ranges for Git
   tutorial     A tutorial introduction to Git (for version 1.5.1 or newer)
   workflows    An overview of recommended workflows with Git


We can use git help <command> or git help <concept> command to know more about about a specific command or concept.

Git Configuration

Description Git Command
Configure the author name to be used with your commits. git config --global user.name "Sam Smith"
Configure the author email address to be used with your commits git config --global user.email sam@example.com
Will remove user credential details from the repository git config --local credential.helper ""
List all currently configured remote repository URLs git remote -v
If you haven't connected your local repository to a remote server, To add a remote server to a local repository git remote add origin <repo_url>


Git Commit and Push

Description Git Command
Create a file name README.md with Readme content content echo "Readme content" >> README.md
List the files you've changed and those you still need to add or commit git status
Add all or one file to staging git add . OR git add file_name
Commit changes to head with message git commit -m 'message'
Commit any files you've added with git add, and also commit any files you've changed since then git commit -a
Send all commits from local repository to remote repository git push
Do a git push and sets the default remote branch for the current local branch. So any future git pull command will attempt to bring in commits from the <remote-branch>into the current local branch git push -u <remote-branch>
Send changes to the master branch of your remote repository git push origin master
Push a specific branch to your remote repository git push origin <branch_name>
Push all branches to your remote repository git push --all origin


Git Checkout And Pull

Description Git Command
To create a new local repository git init
Clone a repository into a new directory git clone repo_url
Clone a repository into a new directory and point to mentioned branch_name git clone --branch branch_name repo_url
To create a working copy of a local repository git clone /path/to/repository
Download objects and refs from remote repository for master branch git fetch origin master
To merge a different branch into your active branch git merge <branch_name>
Fetch and merge changes on the remote server to your working directory: git pull
View all the merge conflicts, View the conflicts against the base file, Preview changes, before merging git diff, git diff --base <filename>, git diff <sourcebranch> <targetbranch>


Git Branch

Description Git Command
List all the branches in your repository, and also tell you what branch you're currently in git branch
Switch from one branch to another git checkout branch_name
Create a new branch and switch to it git checkout -b branch_name
Create a new branch from master branch and switch to it git checkout -b branch_name master
Delete the feature branch from local repository git branch -d <branch_name>
Delete a branch on your remote repository git push origin :<branch_name>


Git Cleaning

Description Git Command
Fetch the latest history (objects & refs) from the remote server for master branch git fetch origin master
Clean repository to initial stage git clean -x -d -f
Reset local repository and point your local master branch to latest history fetched from remote server git reset --hard origin/master
To bring all changes from remote repository to local repository git pull origin master


Other Git commands

Description Git Command
You can use tagging to mark a significant change set, such as a release git tag 1.0.0 <commitID>
Commit Id is the leading characters of the change set ID, up to 10, but must be unique. Get the ID using git log
Push all tags to remote repository git push --tags origin
If you mess up, you can replace the changes in your working tree with the last content in head:Changes already added to the index, as well as new files, will be kept git checkout -- <filename>
Search the working directory for foo() git grep "foo()"


I keep these commands as notes for my future reference and you can find more on this Github Repository and please feel free to provide your valuable feedback.

Git Command (computing) Repository (version control) Branch (computer science) workplace Commit (data management) Version control

Published at DZone with permission of Naresh Joshi, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

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