DEV Community

Andrew Garcia
Andrew Garcia

Posted on • Updated on

Git Cheat Codes: TLDR useful Git commands

I recommend printing this post and/or having it handy on another device while working on Git on your PC.

Project Dev. Sequence

This is a useful and common command sequence used to pass changes to a Github/Git project:

git status
git diff 
git add .   
git commit -m "changes to all files" 
git push
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Short explanations to each of them:

git status inspect / check the files that have been changed in the working directory
git diff [filename] check the specific changes made on the selected, changed file. Useful for writing the commit message.
git add [filename] stage changes to the selected file. This command adds the change to the staging area
git add . stage changes to all changed files
git commit -m "[commit message]" pass changes to the local repository (i.e. to the folder in your local computer)
git push push these passed changes to the server (the Github page / internet)

Create a Repository

Locally

In computer:

  • Make a folder, name it with your desired repository name, add stuff to it.
  • Open terminal in that folder and type git init.
  • Keep the terminal open.

In Github:

  • Click on "+" sign on top-right corner of / New Repository...
  • Add info on that page and then click on "Create Repository" green button.
  • Copy-paste manual guidelines on next page (starts with "echo README" I think) to open terminal from above.
  • git push. You're done!

Easier way

In Github:

  • Click on "+" sign on top-right corner of / New Repository...
  • Add info on that page and then click on "Create Repository" green button.
  • ... Ignore next page and go to the next option.
  • While in new repository, click on green "Code" button and copy https/ssh address (I typically copy the ssh one).

In computer:

  • Open terminal and type git clone [copied-address-from-GitHub]. You're done!

Branches

Basic commands

# create a new branch
git checkout -b [your-new-branch-name]

# check the names of all your branches
git branch

# go to a particular branch
git checkout [your-branch-name]

# transfer all information from a "source" branch to a "sink" branch
git checkout [sink-branch-name]
git merge [source-branch-name]

# delete branch locally (computer)
git branch -d [your-branch-name]

# delete branch remotely ("on GitHub")
git push origin --delete [your-branch-name]
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Rename branch

# checkout to master branch
git checkout main
# local 
git branch -m [old-branch-name] [new-branch-name]
# remote (Github)
git push origin [new-branch-name]
git push origin --delete [old-branch-name]
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Add all content from a fork to a larger repository

To add all the content from your GitHub fork to the larger repository, you can follow these steps:

# Clone the larger library repository to your local machine using the git clone command
git clone https://github.com/larger-repo.git

# Add the fork as a remote to your local clone of the larger library repository using the git remote add command.
git remote add fork https://github.com/[your-username]/[forked-repo-name].git

# Fetch the changes from the fork and switch to a new local branch that will track the forked repository's changes
git fetch fork
git switch -c branch-fork fork/main

# Checkout to the main branch of the larger repo
git checkout main 

# Merge the changes from the fork into your local clone of the larger library repository using the git merge command with the --allow-unrelated-histories flag 
git merge --allow-unrelated-histories branch-fork

# Commit the changes
git commit -m "Merge contents from fork to larger repo"

# Push the changes to the main branch of the larger repository
git push origin main
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Undoing Stuff

Revert modified files not yet staged for commit

git restore [filename]  
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Let's say you have a file with code that you had previously pushed and you made changes to the code; this command does an UNDO on those changes made.

Undo a commit

On your Github repository, Click on the commits counter below the Code button
Image description

Let's say I want to undo the first commit, then I would copy its hash (95f0e33) and run the following command:

git revert 95f0e33 
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Temporarily revert to previous commit

git checkout [commit_ID]  #go to the former code commit / version
git checkout master #go back to current version
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Remove files listed on .gitignore which have been previously committed (i.e. "not gitignored")

git rm -r --cached .;
git add .;
git commit -m "gitignored files deleted from remote!"
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Make Git Remember Your Username and Password

Watch this video around the 3:29 timestamp
Generating an SSH Key 3:29

Adapt SSH key to repositories

'''new repository'''
git clone git@github.com:[user]/[repository].git

'''or if already created repository'''
cat .git/config  #displays local information of repository
git remote set-url origin git@github.com:[user]/[repository].git  #this is the command which sets  the key to your local repository.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Find all folders which are linked to Github repositories in a specific folder (Linux users)

While in folder to search, you may open a Terminal and type the following:

find -name ".git"  #simple
'''or'''
find -name ".git" -print0 | sort -z | xargs -0 cat #in alphabetical order (may take long to compile IF several git repositories synced)

Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Top comments (2)

Collapse
 
hima_khaitan profile image
Himanshu Khaitan

Informative

Collapse
 
andrewrgarcia profile image
Andrew Garcia

thank you Himanshu