Git cheatsheet

Published January 6, 2023・Last updated October 23, 2024・5 min read

Git is one of the version control systems, and it's a prerequisite for development jobs. This post covers most of the git commands I use.

Configuration

Set user configuration for every project if you use multiple accounts
```
git config user.name "<USERNAME>"
git config user.email "<EMAIL_ADDRESS>"
```

Use the current branch for push commands

git config --global push.default current

SSH keys setup

Generate separate SSH keys for Github and Bitbucket with the following command, type the filename path and passphrase.
```
ssh-keygen
```
Add generated public keys to Github and Bitbucket

Run the following commands to activate SSH keys

eval `ssh-agent -s`
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_github
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa_bitbucket

Basic commands

The repository setup

Initialize a git repository
```
git init
```

Clone an existing repository

# git clone <REPOSITORY_URL>
git clone git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git

Add the remote repository

# git remote add <REMOTE_NAME> <REPOSITORY_URL>
git remote add origin git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git
git remote add upstream git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git

Update the URL for the remote repository

# git remote set-url <REMOTE_NAME> <REPOSITORY_URL>
git remote set-url origin git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git

Get a list of configured remote connections
```
git remote -v
```

Branches
- Get a list of the branches
```
git branch
```
- Create and switch to the new branch
```
git checkout -b new-branch
```
- Checkout to a specific commit and create a new branch out of it
```
git log # find a hash from a specific commit
git checkout <COMMIT_HASH>
git switch -c <NEW_BRANCH_NAME>
```
- Switch to another branch
```
git checkout existing-branch
```
- Rename the current branch
```
git branch -m <NEW_BRANCH_NAME>
```
- Delete branch
```
git branch -D other-existing-branch
```
- Fetch all the remote branches
```
git fetch --all
```
- Get a list of remote branches without cloning the repo or verify if the user has "read" access
```
git ls-remote <REPOSITORY_URL>
```
Get the status of the local changes
```
git status
```
Add new changes
```
git add some-file.js
git add .
```
Commits
- Commit the changes
```
git commit -m "Commit message"
```
- Empty commit without any files
```
git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger CI pipeline"
```
- Commit the changes and skip running git hooks
```
git commit -m "Commit message" --no-verify
```
- Update the latest commit message and add new changes to the latest commit
```
git commit -m "Commit message" --amend
```
Push the changes to the remote repository
- Push the changes to the current branch when the current branch is configured as the default one
```
git push
```
- Push the changes to the remote branch
```
# git push <REMOTE_NAME> <BRANCH_NAME>
git push origin master
```
- Force push the changes to the feature branch
```
# git push <REMOTE_NAME> <FEATURE_BRANCH_NAME>
git push origin feature-branch -f
```

Fetch and merge remote changes to the local branch

# git pull <REMOTE_NAME> <BRANCH_NAME>
git pull origin master

Remove (unstage) the changes from the local stage
```
git reset some-file.js
git reset
```
Differences between commits
- Get a difference compared to the latest commit
```
git diff some-file.js
git diff
```
- Get a difference between the last two commits
```
git diff HEAD^ HEAD
# or
git diff HEAD HEAD~1
```
Revert the file changes
```
git checkout -- some-file.js
```
Merge the specified branch into the current one
```
git merge <BRANCH_NAME>
```
Revert specific commit. The following command creates a new commit
```
git revert <COMMIT_HASH>
```

Miscellaneous

Resets

Soft reset (commits are removed, but changes from the removed commits are staged)

# git reset --soft HEAD~{NUMBER_OF_COMMITS_TO_SOFT_REMOVE}
git reset --soft HEAD~2

Hard reset (both commits and changes are removed)

# git reset --hard HEAD~{NUMBER_OF_COMMITS_TO_HARD_REMOVE}
git reset --hard HEAD~1 # equal as git reset --hard HEAD^

Get the latest remote changes when pulling doesn't work
```
git reset --hard origin/<BRANCH_NAME>
```

Stashing

git add .
git stash save <STASH_NAME>
git stash list
git stash apply --index 0

Tags
- Remove the following tag locally
```
git tag -d v0.13.29
```
Find removed commits
```
git reflog
git checkout <COMMIT_HASH>
```
Remove the initial commit
```
git update-ref -d HEAD
```

Patching

Create a patch from the latest commits

# git format-patch -{NUMBER_OF_COMMITS}
git format-patch -1

Apply the patches
```
git apply 0001-latest-commit.patch
```

Git submodules

Add git submodule

# git submodule add -- <REPOSITORY_URL> <DIRECTORY_PATH>
git submodule add -- git@github.com:zsevic/pwa-starter.git template

Retrieve the latest changes for the git submodule

# git submodule update --remote <DIRECTORY_PATH>
git submodule update --remote template

Resolve conflict in the submodule

# git reset HEAD <DIRECTORY_PATH>
git reset HEAD template
git commit