Quick reference

Quick reference#

working directory/ workspace: the actual files you see and edit
staging area: Place files go after git add and before git commit
hash: unique reference of any commit or state
branch: One line of work. Different branches can exist at the same time and split/merge.
HEAD: Pointer to the most recent commit on the current branch.
remote: Roughly, another server that holds .git.
origin: Default name for a remote repository.
master: Default name for main branch. Depending on the configuration and service, the default branch is sometimes main.

Setup:

See our status:

git status: see status of files - use often!
git log: see history of commits and their messages, newest first
git graph: see a detailed graph of commits. Create this command with git config --global alias.graph "log --all --graph --decorate --oneline"
git diff: show difference between working directory and last commit
git diff --staged: show difference between staging area and last commit
git show <commit>: inspect individual commits

General work:

git add:
- Add a new file
- Add a file to staging
git commit: record a version, add it to current branch
git commit --amend: amend our last commit
git branch: show which branch we’re on
git branch <name>: create a new branch called “name”
git checkout <file>: checkout last committed version of <file>, losing unstaged changes
git checkout -b <branch-name>: create a new branch and switch to it
git revert abc123: create a new commit which reverts commit abc123
git reset --soft abc123: remove all commits after abc123, but keep their modifications as staged changes
git reset --hard abc123: remove all commits after abc123, permanently throwing away their changes
git merge <branch-name>: merge branch <branch-name> into current branch
git grep: search for patterns in tracked files
git annotate: find out when a specific line got introduced and by whom
git bisect: find a commit which broke some functionality