The Essential Git Commands Every Developer Must Know

Maybe you're a beginner with Git like I was, and you find it hard to memorize all those commands—especially if you don't like memorizing a lot of things. Here is a list of the essential Git commands every developer should know.

In this article you will see:

• Creating snapshots
• Browsing history
• Branching & merging
• Collaboration using Git & GitHub
• Rewriting history

Creating Snapshots#

Initializing a repository#

git init

Staging files#

Stages a single file

git add file1.js

Stages multiple files

git add file1.js file2.js

Stages with a pattern

git add *.js

Stages the current directory and all its content

git add .

Viewing the status#

Full status

git status

Short status

git status -s

Committing the staged files#

Commits with a one-line message

git commit -m "Message"

Opens the default editor to type a long message

git commit

Skipping the staging area#

git commit -am "Message"

Removing files#

Removes from working directory and staging area

git rm file1.js

Removes from staging area only

git rm --cached file1.js

Renaming or moving files#

git mv file1.js file1.txt

Viewing the staged/unstaged changes#

Shows unstaged changes

git diff

Shows staged changes

git diff --staged

Same as the above

git diff --cached

Viewing the history#

Full history

git log

Summary

git log --oneline

Lists the commits from the oldest to the newest

git log --reverse

Viewing a commit#

Shows the given commit

git show 921a2ff

Shows the last commit

git show HEAD

Two steps before the last commit

git show HEAD~2

Shows the version of file.js stored in the last commit

git show HEAD:file.js

Unstaging files (undoing git add)#

Copies the last version of file.js from repo to index

git restore --staged file.js

Discarding local changes#

Copies file.js from index to working directory

git restore file.js

Restores multiple files in working directory

git restore file1.js file2.js

Discards all local changes (except untracked files)

git restore .

Removes all untracked files

git clean -fd

Restoring an earlier version of a file#

git restore --source=HEAD~2 file.js

Browsing History#

Viewing the history#

Shows the list of modified files

git log --stat

Shows the actual changes (patches)

git log --patch

Filtering the history#

Shows the last 3 entries

git log -3

git log --author="Mosh"

git log --before="2020-08-17"

git log --after="one week ago"

Commits with "GUI" in their message

git log --grep="GUI"

Commits with "GUI" in their patches

git log -S"GUI"

Range of commits

git log hash1..hash2

Commits that touched file.txt

git log file.txt

Formatting the log output#

git log --pretty=format:"%an committed %H"

Creating an alias#

git config --global alias.lg "log --oneline"

Viewing a commit#

git show HEAD~2

Shows the version of file stored in this commit

git show HEAD~2:file1.txt

Comparing commits#

Shows the changes between two commits

git diff HEAD~2 HEAD

Changes to file.txt only

git diff HEAD~2 HEAD file.txt

Checking out a commit#

Checks out the given commit

git checkout dad47ed

Checks out the master branch

git checkout master

Finding a bad commit#

git bisect start

Marks the current commit as a bad commit

git bisect bad

Marks the given commit as a good commit

git bisect good ca49180

Terminates the bisect session

git bisect reset

Finding contributors#

git shortlog

Viewing the history of a file#

Shows the commits that touched file.txt

git log file.txt

Shows statistics (the number of changes) for file.txt

git log --stat file.txt

Shows the patches (changes) applied to file.txt

git log --patch file.txt

Finding the author of lines#

Shows the author of each line in file.txt

git blame file.txt

Tagging#

Tags the last commit as v1.0

git tag v1.0

Tags an earlier commit

git tag v1.0 5e7a828

Lists all the tags

git tag

Deletes the given tag

git tag -d v1.0

Branching & Merging#

Managing branches#

Creates a new branch called bugfix

git branch bugfix

Switches to the bugfix branch

git checkout bugfix

Same as the above

git switch bugfix

Creates and switches

git switch -C bugfix

Deletes the bugfix branch

git branch -d bugfix

Comparing branches#

Lists the commits in the bugfix branch not in master

git log master..bugfix

Shows the summary of changes

git diff master..bugfix

Stashing#

Creates a new stash

git stash push -m "New tax rules"

Lists all the stashes

git stash list

Shows the given stash

git stash show stash@{1}

Shortcut for stash@

git stash show 1

Applies the given stash to the working dir

git stash apply 1

Deletes the given stash

git stash drop 1

Deletes all the stashes

git stash clear

Merging#

Merges the bugfix branch into the current branch

git merge bugfix

Creates a merge commit even if fast-forward is possible

git merge --no-ff bugfix

Squash merge

git merge --squash bugfix

Viewing the merged branches#

Shows the merged branches

git branch --merged

Shows the unmerged branches

git branch --no-merged

Rebasing#

Changes the base of the current branch

git rebase master

Cherry picking#

Applies the given commit on the current branch

git cherry-pick dad47ed

Collaboration#

Cloning a repository#

git clone url

Syncing with remotes#

Fetches master from origin

git fetch origin master

Fetches all objects from origin

git fetch origin

Shortcut for "git fetch origin"

git fetch

Fetch + merge

git pull

Pushes master to origin

git push origin master

Shortcut for "git push origin master"

git push

Sharing tags#

Pushes tag v1.0 to origin

git push origin v1.0

Deletes remote tag

git push origin --delete v1.0

Sharing branches#

Shows remote tracking branches

git branch -r

Shows local & remote tracking branches

git branch -vv

Pushes bugfix to origin

git push -u origin bugfix

Removes bugfix from origin

git push -d origin bugfix

Managing remotes#

Shows remote repos

git remote

Adds a new remote called upstream

git remote add upstream url

Removes upstream

git remote rm upstream

Rewriting History#

Undoing commits#

Removes the last commit, keeps changes staged

git reset --soft HEAD^

Unstages the changes as well

git reset --mixed HEAD^

Discards local changes

git reset --hard HEAD^

Reverting commits#

Reverts the given commit

git revert 72856ea

Reverts the last three commits

git revert HEAD~3..

git revert --no-commit HEAD~3..

Recovering lost commits#

Shows the history of HEAD

git reflog

Shows the history of bugfix pointer

git reflog show bugfix

Amending the last commit#

git commit --amend

Interactive rebasing#

git rebase -i HEAD~5

This article is based on the Git Cheat Sheet from the Mosh course. You can download the original file as a PDF.