GIT is the most widely used distributed open-source Version Control System that allows you to track and manage changes made to the files locally on your computer.

However, the tool is so powerful and extensive enough to get lost in all the possible commands it has.

Hence, based on my own experience, here’s a compilation of GIT cheat sheet which is the most important and commonly used GIT commands for easy reference.

Here, you can download GIT for all platforms.

---

GIT CHEAT SHEET 📋

---

CREATE

From existing data,

• git init creates new repository in current directory
• git add . add all latest changes to the next commit

cd ~/projects/myproject
git init
git add .

From existing repo

• git clone is used to clone a repositroy from a remote server

git clone ~/existing/repo ~new/repo
git clone you@host:dir/project.git (default protocol is ssh)

Remote repository for existing local data

mkdir repo.git && cd repo.git
git init --bare[--shared=group]

UPDATE

Fetch latest changes from origin

git fetch (this does not merge them)

Pull latest changes from origin

git pull (does a fetch followed by a merge)

Apply a patch that someone sent you

git am -3 patch.mbox (In case of conflict, resolve the conflict and)
git am --resolve

PUBLISH

Commit all local changes

git commit -a

Commit previously staged changes

git commit -m "descriptive message"

Prepare a patch for other developers

git format-patch origin

Push changes to origin

git push [origin][branch]

Make a version or a milestone

git tag <version_name>

BRANCH

Switch to the BRANCH branch

git checkout <BRANCH>

Merge branch B1 into branch B2

git checkout <B2>
git merge <B1>

Create branch based on HEAD

git branch <BRANCH>

Create branch based on another

git checkout <new><base>

Delete a branch

git branch -d <branch>

REVERT

Return to the last committed state

git checkout -f | git reset --hard (you cannot undo a hard reset)

Revert the last commit

git revert HEAD (Creates a new commit)

Revert specific commit

git revert $id (Creates a new commit)

Fix the last commit

git commit -a --amend (after editing the broken files)

Checkout the ID version of a file

git checkout <ID><file>

SHOW

Files changed in working directory

git status

Changes to tracked files

git diff

Changes between ID1 and ID2

git diff <ID1><ID2>

History of changes

git log

History of changes with files changed

git whatchanged

Who changed what and when in a file

git blame <file>

A commit identifies by ID

git show <ID>

A specific file from a specific ID

git diff <ID>:<file>

All local branches

git branch (star "*" marks the current branch)

Search for patterns

git grep<pattern>[path]

Here,

• master is the default development branch
• origin is the default upstream repository
• HEAD is the current branch

---

That's it from me today. I hope this cheat sheet helps you with some of the problems you may encounter along the way.

Certainly, it does not cover all the things, but it’s a good article to begin with.

Thanks for reading and let me know about your favorite Git commands in response to this article and share it with your friends and colleagues.