Git cheat sheet

git	version >= 2.37.1

Basic git setup :

Git config:

Set Global config (Omit --global to lit config to current repo)

These will be reflected as Author details in each commit you make

Command	Description
git config --global user.name "your_username"	Author
git config --global user.email "your_email"	Author email

Command	Description
git config --global core.editor "vim"	Change editor to vim
git config --global core.ignorecase false	Detect changes in filename case change
git config --global init.templatedir '~/.git_template	Set git template dir (to configure hooks)
git config --global push.autoSetupRemote true	Skip git branch --set-upstream while pusing new branch to remote

Git alias to create custom command shortcuts

Command	Description
git config --global alias.<short-alias> 'full command'	Create a new git alias in the form of a new git command
git config --global alias.ucc 'commit --amend --no-edit'	Run git ucc instead of git commit --amend --no-edit

Unset config:

Command	Description
git config --global --unset <config-key>	Unset global config ex: git config --global --unset user.name
git config --unset <config-key>	Unset local config ex: git config --unset user.name

Troubleshoot git config

Command	Description
git config --list --show-origin	List all the configs and their location

More operations on config

Adding git to the project:

Command	Description
git init .	Initialize git inside the project root directory.
git add .	Stage all files for commit when run from the root directory
git commit -m "commit-message"	Commit staged files to git.

Adding Remote repo to Project:

Command	Description
git remote add <remote_name> <remote_address>	Add remote repository where remote_name: origin,upstream etc remote_address:(URL) Github, Bitbucket etc
git remote set-url origin <remote_address>	Update remote address
git remote rename origin upstream	Rename remote from origin to upstream
git remote remove <remote_name>	Delete remote
git remote rename origin upstream	Rename remote
git push <remote_name> <branch-name>	Push all the commits to remote default branch name master

Synchronizing local with remote (upstream):

Command	Description
git fetch	Download changes from remote (default origin) without making any changes to files in the working directory.
git pull	Download remote commits from the origin repository configured as upstream for the current branch.
git push	Upload local commits to remote.

Branches in git:

Command	Description
git branch -a	Show all branches.
git branch <new_branch_name>	Create a new branch (Will not switch working tree to new branch).
git checkout -b <new_branch_name>	Create a new branch out of the current branch and switch to the new branch.
git checkout --orphan <new_branch_name>	Create a new branch without any parent commit (empty branch)
git branch -m <old_branch_name> <new_branch_name>	Rename branch.
git push <remote_name> <branch_name>	Push local branch to remote.
git checkout <branch_name>	Switch to specified branch.
git branch -d <branch_name>	Delete local branch (replace -d by -D for force delete)
git push <remote_name> :<branch_name>	Delete remote branch.
git branch --contains <commit_id>	Search branches containing the given commit id

Git stash:

Save current changes without committing before doing pull and checkout to another branch

Command	Description
git stash save "message"	Save changes with give message after running git add <path>
git stash list	Show stash list
git stash pop	Apply the last stash to the current branch and delete stash
git stash apply stash@{n}	Apply nth stash without deleting from stash
git checkout stash@{n} -- <filename>	check out a file from nth stash
git stash clear	Clear all stash
git stash show -p	view last stash content
git stash show -p stash@{n}	view nth stash content

Commits in git:

Command	Description
git commit --amend	Edit last commit message.
git commit --author="First Last <first.last@company.xxx>" --amend --no-edit	Edit the author info of the last commit.
git revert <commit_id>	Rollback to the commit specified by commit_id
git rebase -i HEAD~n	Opens list of the last n commits, replace "pick" by "reword" to alter the commit message of those commits.
git reset --soft HEAD~n	Uncommit the last n commits without overwriting the working directory files.
git reset --hard HEAD~n	Uncommit last n changes and overwrite the working directory files
git cherry-pick <commit_id>	Pull commit from any branch by its commit id into the current branch
git rev-parse --short HEAD	Print last commit id
git commit --all --amend --no-edit	Add current changes to last commit
git merge-base <branch A> <branch B>	Get the latest common commit ID between branch A and branch B

• Altering old commit content

Merging in git :

Command	Description
git merge <branch_name>	Merge any branch into current branch
git merge <branch-name> --no-commit	Merge without merge commit.
git pull <remote_name> <branch_name>	Pull from remote branch and merge
git checkout <branch_name> -- <file_name>	Checkout single file from any branch
git checkout <branch_name> -- .	Checkout all the files from any branch

Fix diverged branches:

Option	Command
1	git rebase
2	git rebase <remote_name>/<branch_name>

Caching in git :

Run these commands after updating the .gitignore file and then commit the changes.

Command	Description
git rm --cached <filename>	Remove specific file from git cache
git rm -r --cached .	Remove all files from git cache

Tags in git

Taggign is widely used to create releases and mark milestones

Command	Description
git tag -l	List all the tags
git tag -a <tagname> -m <message>	Create an annotated tag, with detailed info about the tagger
git tag <tagname>	Create a lightweight tag, tag with only a reference to commit
git tag -l "v1.0.*"	List all the tags matching given pattern
git show <tagname>	View tag details
git push origin <tagname>	Transfer tag to remote
git push origin --tags	Transfer all local tags to remote
git tag -d <tagname>	Delete local tag
git push origin --delete <tagname>	Delete remote tag

Upstream in git :

Upstream is used when we have multiple repositories for a single project

Command	Description
git branch --set-upstream-to=<remote_name>/<remote_branch_name> <local_branch_name>	Set new upstream for the branch.
git branch --set-upstream-to=<remote_name>/<remote_branch_name>	Set new upstream for the current branch.
git push -u <remote_name> <branch_name>	Push to remote branch and set as upstream

List commits in git (log):

Command	Description
git log	List all commits (comprehensive)
git log --oneline	Lit all commits (brief)
git log -n	The n is number of commits to list
git log --all --grep='<message content>'	List/Find commits by message content
git log master..newBranch	List commits that newBranch has but master doesn't

Git diff

Note: ref1 and ref2 could be branchNames, remoteName/branchName, commit SHAs, etc

Command	Description
git diff ref1:path/to/file1 ref2:path/to/file2	Show difference between two references
git diff -- path/to/file ... origin	Show file difference between the local file and remote file of the current branch
git diff branch_name:path/to/file	Simplified version of the above command
git diff -- /dev/null path/to/file	Show contents of the untracked file in diff style

Git patch

without author info:

Command	Description
git diff > my_changes.patch	Create patch file
git apply my_changes.patch	Applying patch file

List file activity since the last commit:

Command	Description
git status	List all created/modified/deleted/staged files
git status . -- ':!dir1' ':!dir2'	skip status result for the given directories

Managing files:

Command	Description
git ls-files --others --exclude-standard	List all untracked files.
git ls-files --modified --exclude-standard	List all modified files.
git update-index --assume-unchanged <ignore file>	Ignore file modification.
git update-index --no-assume-unchanged <ignored file>	Revert above action.
git show <branch>:<file>	Peek into file from different branch.

Git worktree:

It is useful when working on multiple branches simultaneously without maintaining multiple clones for each branch.

Command	Description
git worktree add ../myProject-master master	Master branch code can be accessed at ../myProject-master
git worktree list	list all worktrees from project directory
git worktree remove ../myProject-master	Delete worktree (folder will still be there)
git worktree repair ../new/worktree/path	Repair worktree after moving worktree or bare repository locally to a different location

Git Submodule:

Commands to manage submodules.

Command	Description
git submodule add <repo_address> <submodule_path>	Add new submodule at submodule_path
git submodule update --init	Download all the submodules after cloning the main repo and also reset the submodule commit to the parent commit

Git Restore:

Commands to copy the directory.

Command	Description
git restore --source <branch> dirname	Copy the directory from any branch without git history

Git repo maintenance

Commands keep the local repo clean and faster.

Command	Description
git prune	Clean up orphaned objects/commits

Time savers

Update the last commit which is already pushed to remote.

git add . && git commit --amend --no-edit && git push --force

Merge multiple local commits into a single commit before pushing to remote

git rebase -i HEAD~10
replace pick with fixup for the commits you want to merge.

Note: The oldest commit is at the top.

Tips:

Disable terminal screen (oh-my-zsh)

Add the below line to ~/.zshrc for permanent change.

unset LESS

Reference:

---

• https://git-scm.com/docs
• http://schacon.github.io/git/git.html
• zsh git aliases
• What is HEAD ?
• git-internals-pdf