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Cover image for Git Cheat Sheet 📄 (50 commands + PDF and poster)
Danny Adams
Danny Adams

Posted on • Edited on

Git Cheat Sheet 📄 (50 commands + PDF and poster)

#git #github #programming #productivity

I was tired of looking up the same common Git commands - so I made a cheat sheet that I could print and put on my office wall.

This cheat sheet contains 50 commonly used Git commands on the following topics:

  • Setting up Git
  • Starting a project
  • Making a change
  • Basic concepts
  • Branching
  • Merging
  • Rebasing
  • Undoing things
  • Reviewing your repo
  • Stashing
  • Synchronising local and remote repositories

Git Commands Cheat Sheet PDF

One page PDF to make it easy to copy and paste in commands.

Download the Git Commands Cheat Sheet PDF here

Both PDF and poster are available in Light Mode and Dark Mode:

Git cheat sheet poster in light mode

Git cheat sheet poster in dark mode

Git Cheat Sheet Poster

Order a physical A3 poster for your office wall - so you can quickly look up commands, and keep them at the top of your head.

It comes in thick durable paper, and a matte, light-absorbing finish.

Order a Git Cheat Sheet Poster here

Here's mine on my office wall:

The Git cheat sheet poster on my office wall

Here are all of the commands from the cheat sheet:

Setup

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



$ git config --global user.name "Danny Adams"

$ git config --global user.email "myemail@gmail.com"
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Starting a Project with Git

Create a local repo (omit <directory> to initialise the current directory as a git repo)



$ git init <directory>
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Download a remote repo



$ git clone <url>
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Make a Change

Add a file to staging



$ git add <file>
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Stage all files



$ git add .
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Commit all staged files to git



$ git commit -m "commit message"
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Add all changes made to tracked files & commit



$ git commit -am "commit message"
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Basic Git Concepts

main: default development branch
origin: default upstream repo
HEAD: current branch
HEAD^: parent of HEAD
HEAD~4: great-great grandparent of HEAD

Branches

List all local branches. Add -r flag to show all remote branches. -a flag for all branches.



$ git branch
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Create a new branch



$ git branch <new-branch>
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Switch to a branch & update the working directory



$ git checkout <branch>
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Create a new branch and switch to it



$ git checkout -b <newbranch>
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Delete a merged branch



$ git branch -d <branch>
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Delete a branch, whether merged or
not



$ git branch -D <branch>
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Add a tag to current commit (often used for new version releases)



$ git tag <tag-name>
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Merging

Merge branch a into branch b. Add --no-ff option for no-fast-forward merge

fast-forward vs no-fast-forward merge in Git



$ git checkout b

$ git merge a
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Merge & squash all commits into one new commit



$ git merge --squash a
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Rebasing

Rebase feature branch onto main (to incorporate new changes made to main). Prevents unnecessary merge commits into feature, keeping history clean

Rebasing feature onto main in Git



$ git checkout feature

$ git rebase main
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Interactively clean up a branches commits before rebasing onto main



$ git rebase -i main
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Interactively rebase the last 3 commits on current branch



$ git rebase -i Head~3
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Undoing Things

Move (&/or rename) a file & stage move



$ git mv <existing_path> <new_path>
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Remove a file from working directory & staging area, then stage the removal



$ git rm <file>
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Remove from staging area only



$ git rm --cached <file>
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View a previous commit (READ only)



$ git checkout <commit_ID>
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Create a new commit, reverting the changes from a specified commit



$ git revert <commit_ID>
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Go back to a previous commit & delete all commits ahead of it (revert is safer). Add --hard flag to also delete workspace changes (BE VERY CAREFUL)



$ git reset <commit_ID>
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Review your Repo

List new or modified files not yet committed



$ git status
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List commit history, with respective IDs



$ git log --oneline
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Show changes to unstaged files. For changes to staged files, add --cached option



$ git diff
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Show changes between two commits



$ git diff commit1_ID commit2_ID
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Stashing

Store modified & staged changes. To include untracked files, add -u flag. For untracked & ignored files, add -a flag.



$ git stash
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As above, but add a comment.



$ git stash save "comment"
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Partial stash. Stash just a single file, a collection of files, or individual changes from within files



$ git stash -p
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List all stashes



$ git stash list
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Re-apply the stash without deleting it



$ git stash apply
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Re-apply the stash at index 2, then delete it from the stash list. Omit stash@{n} to pop the most recent stash.



$ git stash pop stash@{2}
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Show the diff summary of stash 1. Pass the -p flag to see the full diff.



$ git stash show stash@{1}
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Delete stash at index 1. Omit stash@{n} to delete last stash made



$ git stash drop stash@{1}
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Delete all stashes



$ git stash clear
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Synchronizing

Add a remote repo



$ git remote add <alias> <url>
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View all remote connections. Add -v flag to view urls.



$ git remote
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Remove a connection



$ git remote remove <alias>
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Rename a connection



$ git remote rename <old> <new>
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Fetch all branches from remote repo (no merge)



$ git fetch <alias>
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Fetch a specific branch



$ git fetch <alias> <branch>
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Fetch the remote repo's copy of the current branch, then merge



$ git pull
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Move (rebase) your local changes onto the top of new changes made to the remote repo (for clean, linear history)



$ git pull --rebase <alias>
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Upload local content to remote repo



$ git push <alias>
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Upload to a branch (can then pull request)




$ git push <alias> <branch>
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Thanks for reading

Hope this cheat sheet is useful!

Again, feel free to download the one-page PDF or order a poster:
One-page Git commands cheat sheet PDF
Order a physical poster

For more from me, you can follow me on Twitter.

Cheers!

Top comments (28)

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fourwhitesocks profile image
fourwhitesocks •

Luv it I just bought the white one :) !!

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doabledanny profile image
Danny Adams •

Awesome, thank you!!

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friendbear profile image
T Kumagai •

Beautiful.

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doabledanny profile image
Danny Adams •

Thank you!

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zoujia profile image
zoujia •

Thanks~I used to use git with UI tools like tortoisegit, because I can not remember so many commands. Recently I start to learn git commands, this is what I need, thanks again👍

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kumar_sons_off profile image
Priyanshu •

This is very handy cheatsheet, thank for sharing Danny 🙌

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doabledanny profile image
Danny Adams •

You're welcome!

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cyberjack profile image
CyberJack •

And yet another git article where the "switch" and "restore" commands are missing.

The checkout command has multiple responsibilities, which isn't a good thing. So 2 new commands where created. The "switch" command can be used to create and/or switch to a branch, while the "restore" command can be used to restore working tree files.

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doabledanny profile image
Danny Adams •

Thanks for the suggestions - I probably should've included "switch", but just stuck with "checkout" as it's what I always use.

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shyam1319 profile image
Shyam Lal •

Realy awesome article!
Thanks a lot.

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robinglory profile image
Robin Glory •

Damm!!
Life will be so much easier with this cheat sheet!1

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doabledanny profile image
Danny Adams •

Cheers Robin!

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cess11 profile image
PNS11 •

Looks good but I think I'll stick to the man pages, they're quite good.

Besides 'man git' giving a high level overview suitable for topic search it also lists these learning resources:
gittutorial(7), gittutorial-2(7), giteveryday(7), gitcvs-migration(7), gitglossary(7), gitcore-tutorial(7), gitcli(7), The Git User’s Manual[1], gitworkflows(7)

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doabledanny profile image
Danny Adams •

Thanks! Yeah the man pages are great, but my aim was to keep this cheat sheet as the one-page with commands that I most commonly use so it wasn't too overwhelming.

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kaumnen profile image
kaumnen •

this is handy, good job!

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doabledanny profile image
Danny Adams •

Glad it's useful, thank you!

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sairamnagothu profile image
SairamNagothu •

Awesome work 👏

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doabledanny profile image
Danny Adams •

Thank you!!

View full discussion (28 comments)

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