---
layout: default
title: Git cheat sheets
description: Quick-reference guides to git
categories: everyday_git
---

h3. Git principles

"Git for computer scientists. (lots of pictures)":http://eagain.net/articles/git-for-computer-scientists/

"Git user's manual":http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/user-manual.html

"Git Magic":http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~blynn/gitmagic/

"Git Cheat Sheets Collection":http://devcheatsheet.com/tag/git/ on DevCheatSheet.com

h3. Zach Rusin's "Git Cheat Sheet":http://zrusin.blogspot.com/2007/09/git-cheat-sheet.html

The SVG is at:
* "http://ktown.kde.org/~zrusin/git/git-cheat-sheet.svg":http://ktown.kde.org/~zrusin/git/git-cheat-sheet.svg

Sample png's are here:
* "http://ktown.kde.org/<span>~</span>zrusin/git/git-cheat-sheet-medium.png":http://ktown.kde.org/~zrusin/git/git-cheat-sheet-medium.png
* "http://ktown.kde.org/<span>~</span>zrusin/git/git-cheat-sheet-large.png":http://ktown.kde.org/~zrusin/git/git-cheat-sheet-large.png

h3. cheat.errtheblog.com

* "http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/git/":http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/git/
* "http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/git_usage/":http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/git_usage/
* "http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/gitsvn/":http://cheat.errtheblog.com/s/gitsvn/

h3. Pierre-Alexandre St-Jean's "Git Cheat Sheet":http://github.com/pastjean/git-cheat-sheet

You have the choice of svg or pdf:
* "http://github.com/downloads/pastjean/git-cheat-sheet/git-cheat-sheet.png":http://github.com/downloads/pastjean/git-cheat-sheet/git-cheat-sheet.png
* "http://github.com/downloads/pastjean/git-cheat-sheet/git-cheat-sheet.pdf":http://github.com/downloads/pastjean/git-cheat-sheet/git-cheat-sheet.pdf
* in french : "http://github.com/pastjean/git-cheat-sheet/raw/master/git-cheat-sheet-fr.svg":http://github.com/pastjean/git-cheat-sheet/raw/master/git-cheat-sheet-fr.svg

h3. Alexander Zeitler's "Git Cheat Sheet":http://github.com/AlexZeitler/gitcheatsheet

You can download PDF or Powerpoint:
* "http://github.com/downloads/AlexZeitler/gitcheatsheet/gitcheatsheet.pdf":http://github.com/downloads/AlexZeitler/gitcheatsheet/gitcheatsheet.pdf
* "http://github.com/downloads/AlexZeitler/gitcheatsheet/gitcheatsheet.pptx":http://github.com/downloads/AlexZeitler/gitcheatsheet/gitcheatsheet.pptx

h3. Nate Murray's "Git Cheat Sheet":http://www.xcombinator.com/2010/09/01/git-cheat-sheet-and-class-notes/

You can download PDF or LaTeX source:
* "http://www.xcombinator.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/git-class-cheat-sheet.pdf":http://www.xcombinator.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/git-class-cheat-sheet.pdf
* "http://github.com/jashmenn/talks/raw/master/git/cheat-sheet/git-class-cheat-sheet.tex":http://github.com/jashmenn/talks/raw/master/git/cheat-sheet/git-class-cheat-sheet.tex

h2. A Practical Git GUIDE

(credit: notes extracted from GIT screencast at http://www.peepcode.com.)

h3. CONFIGURE

identify yourself to git: email and your name

@git config --global user.name "David Beckwith"@

@git config --global user.email "dbitsolutions@@@gmail.com"@

To view all options:

@git config --list@

OR

@cat .git/config@

h4. SET UP ALIASES

@git config --global alias.co checkout@

h4. VIEW YOUR CONFIGURATION

@cat .gitconfig@

h4. 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

h3. START USING GIT

@git init@

h4. TO IGNORE SOME 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@

h4. TO SCHEDULE THE ADDITION OF ALL FILES TO THE NEXT COMMIT

@git add .@

h4. TO SEE THE STATUS

@git status@ 

h4. TO COMMIT

@git commit -m "First import"@

h4. TO SEE WHAT HAS BEEN COMMITTED

@git ls-files@

h4. TO SCHEDULE DELETION OF A FILE

@git rm [file name]@

h4. TO COMMIT ALL CHANGES IN FILES IN THE CURRENT REPOSITORY

@git commit -a@

h4. TO SCHEDULE THE ADDITION OF AN INDIVIDUAL FILE TO THE NEXT COMMIT

@git add [file name]@

h4. TO VIEW THE DIFFERENCE AS YOU COMMIT USE THE -v OPTION

@git commit -v@

h4. TO COMMIT AND TYPE THE MESSAGE ON THE COMMAND LINE USE THE -m OPTION

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

h4. TO COMMIT AND GET AUTOMATICALLY ANY CHANGES FROM OTHER PEOPLE USE THE -a OPTION

@git commit -a@

h4. THE NORMAL COMMIT COMMAND:

@git commit -a -v@

h4. TO VIEW A LOG OF YOUR COMMITS

@git log@

h4. TO VIEW A LOG OF YOUR COMMITS WITH A GRAPH TO SHOW THE EXTENT OF THE CHANGES 

@git log --stat@

h4. TO HAVE PAGINATION WHEN VIEWING THE LOG FILE USE THE -v OPTION

@git log -v@

h4. TO VISUALIZE YOUR CHANGES

@gitk --all@

h4. TO CREATE A NEW TAG AND PUSH IT ON THE REMOTE BRANCH

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

h4. TO CREATE A NEW BRANCH

@git branch [name of your new branch]@

h4. TO PUSH THE NEW BRANCH TO A REMOTE REPOSITORY

@git push origin [new-remote]@

h4. TO PULL A NEW BRANCH FROM A REMOTE REPOSITORY

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

h4. TO VIEW ALL OF THE EXISTING BRANCHES

@git branch@

h4. TO VIEW A LIST OF ALL BRANCHES

@git branch -a@

h4. TO SWITCH 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]@

h4. TO MAKE SURE THAT YOUR NEW BRANCH GETS CHANGES FROM THE MASTER BRANCH (WHERE EVERYBODY ELSE IS WORKING) USE THE REBASE COMMAND

@git rebase master@

h4. TO MERGE YOUR NEW BRANCH 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@

h4. TO REVERT YOUR CHANGES to before the merge.

@git reset --hard ORIG_HEAD@

h4. TO RESOLVE CONFLICTS just edit your file.  

Remove the markings, add the file, then commit.

h4. TO CREATE A BRANCH AND SWITCH TO THE BRANCH IN ONE MOVE:

@git checkout -b [name of new branch]@

h4. TO CREATE A "CLIPBOARD" or "STASH" OF CHANGES THAT ARE NOT YET COMMITED (SO THAT YOU CAN SWITCH TO ANOTHER BRANCH IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR CHANGES.), CREATE A STASH.

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

h4. TO SWITCH AWAY FROM THE CURRENT BRANCH

@git co [branch you want to switch to]@

Do whatever
Then switch back to the stashed branch

@git co [the stashed branch]@

h4. TO VIEW THE LIST OF STASHES

@git stash list@

h4. TO LOAD BACK THE "CLIPBOARD" OR "STASH"

@git stash apply@

Now you can continue to work where you were previously.

h4. TO DELETE A BRANCH THAT IS NOT USED ANYMORE, but already merged into the current branch.  (TO CLEAN UP)

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

h4. TO DELETE AN UNMERGED BRANCH 

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

h4. TO DELETE THE STASH.  (ERASE THE "CLIPBOARD" FROM MEMORY)

@git stash clear@

h4. TO SET UP YOUR REPOSITORY FOR SHARING ON A CENTRAL 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@.

h4. TO CHECK OUT THE GIT REPOSITORY TO YOUR LOCALHOST.  ON YOUR LOCAL HOST DO THIS:

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

h4. TO SEE SOME INFO ABOUT THE REPOSITORY THAT WILL TELL YOU WHICH REPOSITORY IS THE MASTER AND WHICH IS THE SLAVE:

@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.

h4. TO UPDATE YOUR LOCAL BRANCH FROM THE REMOTE SERVER:

@git pull@

h4. TO GET A COPY OF THE ENTIRE REMOTE REPOSITORY (e.g. a repository named "laptop") WITHOUT MERGING THEM INTO YOUR LOCAL BRANCHES USE FETCH

@git fetch laptop@

h4. TO MERGE 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.


h4. TO MERGE THE REMOTE BRANCH WITH YOUR LOCAL BRANCH THAT YOU ARE SITTING IN USE PULL

h4. TO ADD LOCAL KNOWLEDGE (TO YOUR LOCAL REPOSITORY) OF A 2ND REMOTE REPOSITORY, LIKE YOUR LAPTOP

@git remote add laptop duo2book.local:repos/m_project@

where '''laptop''" is the name of the remote repository and  "''duo2book.local''" is the name of the remote machine.

h4. TO VIEW META INFORMATION ABOUT THAT REMOTE REPOSITORY

@git remote show laptop@

h4. TO PUSH A COMMITTED LOCAL CHANGE OF THE xyz BRANCH TO THE REMOTE laptop BRANCH

@git push laptop xyz@

h4. TO CREATE A TRACKING BRANCH (A SLAVE BRANCH).  Ie. to link a local branch to a remote branch:

@git branch --track local_branch remote_branch@

h4. NOW IF YOU'RE SITTING IN THE LOCAL TRACKING BRANCH, TO PULL YOU DON'T NEED TO SPECIFY THE REMOTE TRACKING BRANCH:

@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 way SVN is usually set up on a remote server.

h4. TO SEE WHICH LOCAL BRANCHES ARE TRACKING A REMOTE BRANCH:

@git remote show origin@

h4. TO WORK WITH AN SVN REPOSITORY BUT WORK 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)


h4. TO PUSH (COMMIT) CHANGES TO THE REMOTE SERVER

@git-svn dcommit@

h4. TO UPDATE YOUR LOCAL REPOSITORY FROM THE SVN REPOSITORY

@git-svn rebase@

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

h4. I screwed up, how do I reset my checkout?

@git checkout -f@