Git Commands

Getting & Creating Projects

Command Description
git init Initialize a local Git repository
git clone ssh://git@github.com/[username]/[repository-name].git Create a local copy of a remote repository

Basic Snapshotting

Command Description
git status Check status
git add [file-name.txt] Add a file to the staging area
git add -A Add all new and changed files to the staging area
git commit -m "[commit message]" Commit changes
git rm -r [file-name.txt] Remove a file (or folder)

Branching & Merging

Command Description
git branch List branches (the asterisk denotes the current branch)
git branch -a List all branches (local and remote)
git branch [branch name] Create a new branch
git branch -d [branch name] Delete a branch
git push origin --delete [branchName] Delete a remote branch
git checkout -b [branch name] Create a new branch and switch to it
git checkout -b [branch name] origin/[branch name] Clone a remote branch and switch to it
git checkout [branch name] Switch to a branch
git checkout - Switch to the branch last checked out
git checkout -- [file-name.txt] Discard changes to a file
git merge [branch name] Merge a branch into the active branch
git merge [source branch] [target branch] Merge a branch into a target branch
git stash Stash changes in a dirty working directory
git stash clear Remove all stashed entries

Sharing & Updating Projects

Command Description
git push origin [branch name] Push a branch to your remote repository
git push -u origin [branch name] Push changes to remote repository (and remember the branch)
git push Push changes to remote repository (remembered branch)
git push origin --delete [branch name] Delete a remote branch
git pull Update local repository to the newest commit
git pull origin [branch name] Pull changes from remote repository
git remote add origin ssh://git@github.com/[username]/[repository-name].git Add a remote repository
git remote set-url origin ssh://git@github.com/[username]/[repository-name].git Set a repository's origin branch to SSH

Inspection & Comparison

Command Description
git log View changes
git log --summary View changes (detailed)
git diff [source branch] [target branch} Preview changes before merging

Difference between git add, commit, push

  1. git add adds your modified files to the queue to be committed later. Files are not committed

  2. git commit commits the files that have been added and creates a new revision with a log... If you do not add any files, git will not commit anything. You can combine both actions with git commit -a

  3. git push pushes your changes to the remote repository.

The difference between git reset --mixed, --soft, and --hard

When you modify a file in your repository, the change is initially unstaged. In order to commit it, you must stage it—that is, add it to the index—using git add. When you make a commit, the changes that are committed are those that have been added to the index.

git reset changes, at minimum, where the current branch (HEAD) is pointing. The difference between --mixed and --soft is whether or not your index is also modified. So, if we're on branch master with this series of commits:

- A - B - C (master)

HEAD points to C and the index matches C.

When we run git reset --soft B, master (and thus HEAD) now points to B, but the index still has the changes from C; git status will show them as staged. So if we run git commit at this point, we'll get a new commit with the same changes as C.

Okay, so starting from here again:

- A - B - C (master)

Now let's do git reset --mixed B. (Note: --mixed is the default option). Once again, master and HEAD point to B, but this time the index is also modified to match B. If we run git commit at this point, nothing will happen since the index matches HEAD. We still have the changes in the working directory, but since they're not in the index, git status shows them as unstaged. To commit them, you would git add and then commit as usual.

And finally, --hard is the same as --mixed (it changes your HEAD and index), except that --hard also modifies your working directory. If we're at C and run git reset --hard B, then the changes added in C, as well as any uncommitted changes you have, will be removed, and the files in your working copy will match commit B. Since you can permanently lose changes this way, you should always run git status before doing a hard reset to make sure your working directory is clean or that you're okay with losing your uncommitted changes.

In the simplest terms:

--soft: uncommit changes, changes are left staged (index).

--mixed (default): uncommit + unstage changes, changes are left in working tree.

--hard: uncommit + unstage + delete changes, nothing left.