DEV Community

Cover image for 💡📖 Essential Git Commands: Your Go-To Cheat Sheet for Efficient Version Control
João Victor
João Victor

Posted on

💡📖 Essential Git Commands: Your Go-To Cheat Sheet for Efficient Version Control

#git #tutorial #beginners #programming

Git is essential for software development, allowing version control, effective collaboration among developers, and secure management of code changes. It facilitates tracking changes, reverting to previous versions, and integrating work from different team members, making the development process more organized and efficient. For more insights and to explore my other repositories or access this post in Portuguese, be sure to visit my GitHub profile at my GitHub.

🛠️ Commands

⚙️ Configuration and Setup

🔹 git config

Configures the user name, email, editor, and more.

Exemplo: `git config --global user.name "Your Name"` sets the user name for all repositories.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git init

Initializes a new local Git repository.

Exemplo: `git init` creates a new Git repository in the current directory.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🗃️ Stage & Snapshot

🔹 git status

Shows the status of files (modified, untracked, etc.).

Exemplo: `git status` to see the current state of files.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git add

Adds files to the stage for committing.

Exemplo: `git add .` adds all modified files to the stage.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git commit

Commits the files from the stage and saves a snapshot of the project.

Exemplo: `git commit -m "message"` commits with a message.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🌳 Branch & Merge

🔹 git branch

Lists, creates, or deletes branches.

Exemplo: `git branch new-branch` creates a new branch.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git checkout

Switches to another branch or restores files.

Exemplo: `git checkout another-branch` switches to the specified branch.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git merge

Merges histories of two branches.

Exemplo: `git merge another-branch` merges another-branch into the current branch.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔍 Inspection & Comparison

🔹 git log

Shows the commit history.

Exemplo: `git log` to see the commit history.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git diff

Shows differences between commits, branches, etc.

Exemplo: `git diff` shows unstaged differences.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

📤 Share & Update

🔹 git remote

Manages a set of tracked repositories.

Exemplo: `git remote add origin URL` adds a new remote.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git fetch

Downloads objects and refs from another repository.

Exemplo: `git fetch origin` updates the remote origin information.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git push

Updates the remote repository with local commits.

Exemplo: `git push origin main` sends local commits to the main branch in the remote origin.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git pull

Updates the local repository with the latest version from the remote.

Exemplo: `git pull origin main` updates the local with the remote.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🚫 Undo

🔹 git revert

Reverts changes from a specific commit.

Exemplo: `git revert <commit-hash>` reverts the changes from the specified commit.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git reset

Resets the HEAD to a previous state.

Exemplo: `git reset --hard HEAD~1` undoes the last commit and changes.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git rm

Removes files from the index (stage) and working directory.

Exemplo: `git rm file.txt` removes the file from the working directory and the stage.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git restore

Restores files from the stage or commit history.

Exemplo: `git restore file.txt` undoes changes in the file.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git clean

Removes untracked files by Git.

Exemplo: `git clean -fd` removes untracked directories and files.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🌐 Working with Remotes

🔹 git clone

Copies an existing Git repository.

Exemplo: `git clone <url>` clones the repository locally.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git push (review)

Sends changes to the remote repository.

Exemplo: `git push origin main` sends local changes to the main branch in the remote.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git pull (review)

Updates your local repository with the remote repository version.

Exemplo: `git pull origin main` pulls updates from main in the origin to the local.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🚀 Advanced Management

🔹 git rebase

Reapplies commits on top of another base.

Exemplo: `git rebase main` reapplies the commits from the current branch on top of main.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git blame

Shows who modified each line of a file.

Exemplo: `git blame file.txt` shows the line-by-line authorship.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git show

Shows information about objects in Git.

Exemplo: `git show <commit-hash>` shows information about the commit.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git log --graph

Displays the commit history as an ASCII graph.

Exemplo: `git log --graph` shows the structure of branches and merges.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git stash

Temporarily saves local changes in a clean area.

Exemplo: `git stash push -m "message"` saves the current work with a message.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git stash pop

Applies changes saved with git stash.

Exemplo: `git stash pop` applies the last stashed change.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git cherry-pick

Applies a commit from another branch to the current branch.

Exemplo: `git cherry-pick <commit-hash>` applies the specified commit.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🏷️ Tags

🔹 git tag

Lists, creates, or deletes tags.

Exemplo: `git tag v1.0.0` creates a tag to mark a version.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🧩 Git Hooks

🔹 git hook

Scripts hooks triggered by important events.

Exemplo: Customize `.git/hooks/pre-commit` to run tests before each commit.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

📝 Reflog

🔹 git reflog

Shows a log of changes in the HEAD reference.

Exemplo: `git reflog` helps to find lost commits.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔗 Submodules

🔹 git submodule

Manages another repository within a repository as a submodule.

Exemplo: `git submodule add URL` adds a new submodule.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🛠️ Debugging Tools

🔹 git bisect

Uses binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug.

Exemplo: `git bisect start` to start the bisect.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔧 Merge Tools

🔹 git mergetool

Opens a graphical tool to resolve merge conflicts.

Exemplo: `git mergetool` after a merge conflict.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🌐 Working with Remotes

🔹 git remote show

Shows information about the remote repository.

Exemplo: `git remote show origin` shows details of the remote origin.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git remote prune

Removes local references to deleted remote branches.

Exemplo: `git remote prune origin` cleans old references.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🗂️ Git Archive

🔹 git archive

Creates an archive (like .tar or .zip) of commit trees.

Exemplo: `git archive --format zip --output /tmp/file.zip HEAD` creates a zip file of the current state.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🌳 Git Worktree

🔹 git worktree

Manages multiple worktrees linked to a repository.

Exemplo: `git worktree add ../new-directory branch` creates a new worktree.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🛠️ Other Useful Commands

🔹 git ls-tree

Lists the contents of a commit tree.

Exemplo: `git ls-tree HEAD` shows the tree of the HEAD.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git mv

Moves or renames a file, directory, or symlink.

Exemplo: `git mv old_file.txt new_file.txt`.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git gc

Cleans unnecessary files and optimizes the local repository.

Exemplo: `git gc` to optimize the repository.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git fsck

Checks the integrity of the Git filesystem.

Exemplo: `git fsck` to check for errors.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git filter-branch

Rewrites branches.

Exemplo: `git filter-branch --tree-filter 'rm -f password.txt' HEAD` removes a file from the entire history.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

ℹ️ Information and Help

🔹 git help

Shows help for Git commands.

Exemplo: `git help commit` shows the help for the commit command.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git version

Shows the installed Git version.

Exemplo: `git version` to see the current version.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

❌ Git Ignore

🔹 .gitignore

Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore.

Exemplo: Add `*.log` to .gitignore to ignore log files.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

📝 Git Attributes

🔹 .gitattributes

Allows defining attributes for specific paths.

Exemplo: Add `*.txt linguist-detectable=true` to .gitattributes.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🗃️ LFS (Large File Storage) Management

🔹 git lfs track

Tracks large files with Git LFS.

Exemplo: `git lfs track "*.psd"` to track Photoshop files.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🔹 git lfs ls-files

Lists all files tracked by Git LFS.

Exemplo: `git lfs ls-files` to see LFS files.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🚀 Performance

🔹 git count-objects

Shows information about objects in the Git database.

Exemplo: `git count-objects` to see repository statistics.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🌐 Networking

🔹 git daemon

Allows Git to be served as a daemon for stateless protocols.

Exemplo: `git daemon --reuseaddr --base-path=/path/to/repo --export-all --verbose` to serve a repository.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

🌳 Subtree

🔹 git subtree

Tool for subprojects, allows repositories within another.

Exemplo: `git subtree add --prefix=subproject subproject_repo master --squash` adds a subproject.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Top comments (0)

Read next

witcher_1001 profile image

🌐 SSH Tunneling: Securely Connect to Remote Networks Like a Pro

The Witcher -

terieyenike profile image

Building a Console-Based Calculator in C#

teri -

outstandingvick profile image

Creating Custom Hooks for Reusable Logic in React

Victor Ogbonna -

tymey profile image

Test Driven Development:

Tyler Meyer -