Git Cheat Sheet

Configuration

identify yourself to git: email and your name

git config --global user.name "John Smith"

git config --global user.email "abc@mail.com"

To view all options:

git config --list

OR

cat .git/config

Set up aliases

git config --global alias.co checkout

View your configuration

cat .gitconfig

To ignore whitespace (Ruby is whitespace insensitive)

git config --global apply.whitespace nowarn

Some nice aliases:

gb = git branch
gba = git branch -a
gc = git commit -v
gd = git diff | mate
gl = git pull
gp = git push
gst = git status

Start using git

git init

Ignoring files

Add a file in the root directory called .gitignore and add some files to it: (comments begin with hash)

*.log db/schema.rb db/schema.sql

Git automatically ignores empty directories. If you want to have a log/ directory, but want to ignore all the files in it, add the following lines to the root .gitignore: (lines beginning with ‘!’ are exceptions)

log/*
!.gitignore

Then add an empty .gitignore in the empty directory:

touch log/.gitignore

Scheduling the addition of all files to the next commit

git add .

Checking the status of your repository

git status

Committing files

git commit -m "First import"

Seeing what files have been committed

git ls-files

Scheduling deletion of a file

git rm [file name]

Committing all changes in a repository

git commit -a

Scheduling the addition of an individual file to the next commit

git add [file name]

Viewing the difference as you commit

git commit -v

Commit and type the message on the command line

git commit -m "This is the message describing the commit"

Commit and automatically get any other changes

git commit -a

A “normal” commit command

git commit -a -v

Viewing a log of your commits

git log

Viewing a log of your commits with a graph to show the changes

git log --stat

Viewing a log with pagination

git log -v

Visualizing git changes

gitk --all

Creating a new tag and pushing it to the remote branch

git tag "v1.3"
git push --tags

Creating a new branch

git branch [name of your new branch]

Pushing the branch to a remote repository

git push origin [new-remote]

Pulling a new branch from a remote repository

git fetch origin [remote-branch]:[new-local-branch]

Viewing branches

git branch

Viewing a list of all existing branches

git branch -a

Switching to another branch

The state of your file system will change after executing this command.

git checkout [name of the branch you want to switch to]

OR

git co [name of the branch you want to switch to]

Making sure changes on master appear in your branch

git rebase master

Merging a branch back into the master branch

First, switch back to the master branch:

git co master

Check to see what changes you’re about to merge together, compare the two branches:

git diff master xyz

If you’re in a branch that’s not the xyz branch and want to merge the xyz branch into it:

git merge xyz

Reverting changes to before said merge

git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD

Resolving conflicts

Remove the markings, add the file, then commit.

Creating a branch (and switching to the new branch) in one line

git checkout -b [name of new branch]

Creating a stash (like a clipboard) of changes to allow you to switch branches without committing

git stash save "Put a message here to remind you of what you're saving to the clipboard"

Switching from the current branch to another

git co [branch you want to switch to]

Do whatever
Then switch back to the stashed branch

git co [the stashed branch]

Viewing a list of stashes

git stash list

Loading back the stash

git stash apply

Now you can continue to work where you were previously.

Deleting a branch (that has been merged back at some point)

git branch -d [name of branch you want to delete]

Deleting an unmerged branch

git branch -D [name of branch you want to delete]

Deleting a stash

git stash clear

Setting up a repository for use on a remote server

Copy up your repository. e.g.:

scp -r my_project deploy@yourbox.com:my_project

Move your files on the remote server to /var/git/my_project
For security make the owner of this project git
On the repository server:

sudo chown -R git:git my_project

Then (for security) restrict the “deploy” user to doing git-related things in /etc/passwd with a git-shell.

Checking out a git repository from a remote to your local storage

git clone git@yourbox.com:/var/git/my_project

Viewing extra info about a remote repository

cat .git/config

By virtue of having cloned the remote repository, your local repository becomes the slave and will track and synchronize with the remote master branch.

Updating a local branch from the remote server

git pull

Downloading a copy of an entire repository (e.g. laptop) without merging into your local branch

git fetch laptop

Merging two local branches (ie. your local xyz branch with your local master branch)USE MERGE

git merge laptop/xyz

This merged the (already copied laptop repository’s xyz branch) with the current branch you’re sitting in.

Viewing metadata about a remote repository

git remote show laptop

Pushing a committed local change from one local branch to another remote branch

git push laptop xyz

Creating a tracking branch (i.e. to link a local branch to a remote branch)

git branch --track local_branch remote_branch

You do not need to specify the local branch if you are already sitting in it.

git pull

Note: You can track(link) different local branches to different remote machines. For example, you can track your friend’s “upgrade” branch with your “bobs_upgrade” branch, and simultaneously you can track the origin’s “master” branch (of your main webserver) with your local “master” branch.

By convention, ‘origin’ is the local name given to the remote centralized server which is the waySVN is usually set up on a remote server.

Seeing which local branches are tracking a remote branch

git remote show origin

Working with a remote Subversion repository (but with git locally)

git-svn clone [http location of an svn repository]

Now you can work with the checked out directory as though it was a git repository. (cuz it is)

Pushing (committing) changes to a remote Subversion repository

git-svn dcommit

Updating a local git repository from a remote Subversion repository

git-svn rebase

NOTE: make sure you have your perl bindings to your local svn installation.

I screwed up, how do I reset my checkout?

git checkout -f