Table of git commands

GitTips.md

Command	Description	Example
status	See the status of files	git status
add	Add (stage) a file to a commit (file could be a new file, or already tracked by the repository)	git add Subfolder\algorithm.cs
commit	Commit staged files	git commit -m "Commit message"
commit --amend	Commit staged files, amending to the previous commit	git commit --amend -m "Commit message"
log	See the commit log. Commits are shown one page at a time, with the newest commit first.	git log
log -L	See changes to a specific range of code, through all commits	git log -L 580,600:clsAlgorithm.cs
log --graph	Draw a text-based graphical representation of the commit history, optionally specifying the branch to follow (master in this example)	git log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit master git log --graph --decorate --pretty=medium--abbrev-commit master
log --stat	Show log messages, names of updated files, and a graphical bar of the number of added and removed lines	git log --stat
reflog	View all commits, including hidden or superseded ones	git reflog
show	View the details of a commit	git show master git show master~1 git show 4dfbb
show --stat --oneline	Compact view of the changes in a commit. To define an alias for git changes HASH use: git config --global alias.changes "show --stat --oneline"	git show --stat --oneline git show --stat --oneline 82841cf1 git changes 82841cf1
branch -v	List branches, verbosely. Use -vv for even more info	git branch -v git branch -vv
branch	Create a new branch (it initially points to your current location). The second example creates a new branch named bugWork back two commits from the master	git branch bugFix git branch bugWork master~2
branch --set-upstream-to	Set the default remote branch for the current local branch. Older versions of git use branch --set-upstream <remote-branch>	git branch --set-upstream-to origin/master
checkout	Switch to a branch or even a specific commit (can only switch if you have no modified or staged files). Switching to a commit that does not correspond to master or the head of a branch means that you are detaching the HEAD.	git checkout bugFix git checkout Commit_Hash
checkout -b	Create a branch and switch to it immediately	git checkout -b bugFix
checkout a remote branch	To checkout a remote branch you must first make a local copy of that branch, then check out the commits for the remote branch. This is because git doesn't allow you to work on someone else's branches. You can only work on your own.	git checkout -b develop origin/develop
Ancestor checkout with ^	Use ^ after a branch or commit hash to indicate the parent. Use ^^ to indicate the grandparent	git checkout master^ git checkout master^^ git checkout HEAD^
Ancestor checkout with ~	Use ~ after a branch or commit hash to indicate to move several commits back.	git checkout HEAD~4
merge	Merge changes from another branch onto your current branch (or master)	git merge bugFix
merge --ff-only	Merge changes only if a fast-forward is possible. Typically done to merge in changes from a development branch to master.	git checkout master git merge develop --ff-only
merge --no-ff --no-commit	Merge changes but do not commit the changes, letting you review changes before committing.	git checkout develop git pull git checkout master git pull git merge --no-ff --no-commit develop
rebase then merge	To assure that individual commits in a development branch appear as separate commits in the master branch, first rebase master onto develop, then switch to master and merge in the change from the develop branch	git checkout master git pull git checkout develop git pull git rebase -i master git checkout master git merge develop
fetch	Fetch remote changes	git fetch origin
reset	Discards changes by moving a branch reference backwards in time to an older commit (this rewrites history). Afterward, it will be as if the commit had never been made in the first place. Note that HEAD~1 is the target commit that we want to move the HEAD to.	git reset HEAD~1
reset (soft)	Update your files to match the remote origin. This changes the git index but does not touch local files.	git reset origin/master git reset refs/remotes/origin/master
Undo commit	Undo the most recent commit using a soft reset. This changes the git log but will not change your local files.	git reset --soft HEAD~1
reset (hard)	Update your files to match the remote origin. Useful if you see message "Your branch and 'origin/master' have diverged"	git reset --hard origin/master git reset --hard refs/remotes/origin/master
revert	Reverts changes by creating a new commit that reverses the previous commits (does not rewrite history). Note that HEAD is the commit that we want to revert. Use -n to update your working files but no create a new commit	git revert HEAD git revert -n HEAD
revert Hash1..Hash2	Revert changes from a range of commits. The example shown reverts commits from the fifth last commit in master (inclusive) to the third last commit in master (inclusive)	git revert -n master~5..master~2
rebase target	Rebasing takes a set of commits, "copies" them, and plops them down somewhere else. The example shown takes the latest commits from the bugFix branch and append them to the commit history of the master branch	git checkout bugFix git commit -m "Fix a bug" git rebase master
rebase target source	Copy the commits at source (typically a branch) and append then to the target (typically master)	git rebase master bugFix
Undo a simple rebase	reset, rebase and merge all save your original HEAD pointer into ORIG_HEAD, so undo any of those operations with git reset	git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD
Undo a complex rebase	Use git reflog to find the head commit of the branch as it was immediately before the rebase started then use git reset --hard Commit_Hash	git reflog git reset --hard HEAD@{5} git rebase --abort
Undo a hard reset	First use git reflog to determine the hash of the desired commit. Next issue another hard reset: git reset --hard Commit_Hash	git reflog git reset --hard 330cf5e
cherry-pick	Similar to rebase, but copies the specific commits to below the current HEAD (creating new commits)	git cherry-pick C2 C4
interactive rebase	Re-order commits and/or update commit messages (rewrites history). The following means to start rebasing after the given commit (in this case, just after the commit 4 before the HEAD). An editor is shown with the commit hashes and commit messages. Each commit is preceded by "pick". To remove a commit, remove the word "pick". To combine several commits, change "pick" to "squash" or "fixup" for the 2nd and subsequent commits. You can also rearrange commits.	git rebase -i HEAD~4
split a commit	Use interactive rebase to split a commit, using the "edit" keyword in the rebase commands file that appears in the text editor once the interactive rebase starts. When the edit location is reached, perform the desired commits, then git rebase --continue.	git rebase -i HEAD~3 or git rebase -i d6fe5988 After completing the edit step, use git rebase --continue
Undo adding a file to a commit	This command removes all traces of a committed file by searching for the file in all commits. To start at a specific commit hash, replace --all with Commit_Hash..HEAD (for example 7b3072c..HEAD)	git filter-branch --index-filter 'git rm --cached --ignore-unmatch path/to/fileToDelete' --tag-name-filter cat -- --all
tag	Attach a tag (permanent marker) to a given commit (or to HEAD)	git tag Release1 Commit_Hash
tag -d	Delete a tag	git tag -d Release1
describe	Describe where a commit (or HEAD) is relative to the most recent tag. The format is tag_numCommits_gHash	git describe master may report "v1_2_gC2" meaning 2 commits forward from tag v1, at hash C2 git describe sideBranch may report "v2_1_gC4",meaning 1 commit forward from tag v2, at hash C4
rev-list	Get a listing of revisions within a range of commits (use commit hashes or relative positions). Common variants for --pretty are --pretty=oneline, --pretty=short, and --pretty=medium	git rev-list --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --abbrev=7 HEAD~7...HEAD
diff	Show changes between commits or changes from a file to a given commit	git diff HEAD clsLogger.cs to compare changes in clsLogger.cs vs. the most recent commit git diff 9a1d7fe clsLogger.cs to compare changes in clsLogger.cs vs. an arbitrary commit git diff 9a1d7fe 760b8e0 to compare changes between two commits git diff HEAD HEAD~2 to compare changes from the most recent commit to a commit two commits back
diff --stat	List changed files between two commits, listing the number of changed lines and including histograms of the number of added and removed lines	git diff --stat HEAD~6 HEAD~10 git diff --numstat HEAD~6 HEAD~10 is like --stat but without the histograms git diff --shortstat HEAD~6 HEAD~10 to just show the last line from --stat, for example 6 files changed, 170 insertions(+), 125 deletions(-) git diff --dirstat HEAD~6 HEAD~10 to summarize changes by subdirectory