Git commands

Some basic git commands and what they do.

Simple workflow to get started

Let say you have set up your repository, you can access it via ssh or https. You have its link (we usually prefer via SSH, but the commands are the same with both).

You first clone the repository:

# Cloning a repo via ssh
git clone git@github.com:sylhare/Type-on-Strap.git

You can do some modification, review them using and prepare your commit

# Review the state of repo
git status
# Add a the file name `new_file.md`
git add new_file.md
# Or add everything you've modified
git add --All

If you redo git status, you will see the changes you have added are now staged. You can commit them and push it to _ remote_ using:

# Create a commit with a message using
git commit -m "Add new_file.md"

If you can’t push your commit with git push directly you may need to pull the first few changes first. Here is how it would look like on the git history:

%%{init: { 'logLevel': 'debug', 'theme': 'base' } }%% gitGraph commit branch remote commit checkout main commit checkout remote commit commit checkout main merge remote commit

Pulling while rebasing allow you to avoid some conflict by replaying the commits from older to newer from both the remote branch and the main branch:

# Make sure you have the last version of the repo, the --rebase for a smoother pull 
git pull --rebase
# Push your commit to remote
git push

See log of the repository

Use:

git log

To exit git log type q on the terminal. For more magic with git log check out Magic stats with git

Stash changes

This can be used when you are updating your local repository with the remote one and avoid conflicts. For example when you have changes not committed, and you need to pull before a commit. A basic workflow would be to stash, pull, commit and re apply your stash.

# To save your local changes as 'stash'
git stash 
# To delete a stash
git drop <stash sha>

# To get back the last modification from stash and delete it
git pop 
# To get the local changes from a stash and keep it
git apply <stash sha>

Create a branch

Get the state and branches of the repository:

# See the repo remotely
git remote -v
# See the branch locally
git branch

Create and checkout on a new branch:

# Create the branch
git branch patch-1
# Go inside the branch
git checkout patch-1

All the commits made on that new branch will stay on that branch. Only when you merge the commit will be added to the main branch:

%%{init: { 'logLevel': 'debug', 'theme': 'base' } }%% gitGraph commit commit commit branch patch-1 commit commit

Create a branch and checkout in one line from a new local one or by tracking an existing remote one:

# Create a branch locally and checkout in one line
git checkout -b patch-1
# Add a remote branch and fetch it
git checkout --track origin/patch-1

Revert a commit

Commits are identified by a special number, a commit hash (SHA) like 860652a4ab3749a72401b2ceaacf68b27afbc404. It can also be identified with the first 7 numbers like 860652a

To revert you need to use:

git revert 860652a

Which will revert the commit 860652a. The HEAD be at the previous commit state:

%%{init: { 'logLevel': 'debug', 'theme': 'base' } }%% gitGraph commit id: "86052a" commit id: "Revert 86052a" type: REVERSE

You can also revert multiple commits from HEAD using:

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

This way you can revert the last 3 commits (The .. creates the range).

This will not work if some commits are “merge commits”

If you don’t want to use a “revert” commit to remove your change, you can also rebase and drop the commit.

Amend a commit

When you have made a mistake, or you want to modify your last commit. (Usually the one not pushed to master) Try using:

git commit --amend
# Amend commit with change of author
git commit --amend --author="John Doe <john@doe.org>"

It will allow you to change the commit name, and the modifications included in the commit. If you want to modify multiple commits you can also do:

git rebase -i HEAD~4 -x "git commit --amend --author 'John Doe <john@doe.org>' --no-edit"

You may need to force push, or if the branch is protected, you will need to temporarily disable that protection, or your changes will be rejected.

Rename multiple commits

Using rebase:

# To return three commits back
git rebase -i HEAD~3

You will see the commits, use reword in the one to change. Validate by doing:

git rebase --continue

At the end, to push remote, don’t forget to add --force. Bear in mind that you’ll mess up the history for whoever had a previous version. So use with caution.

If your commit started with # which is by default a comment, and you want to keep it in your git message during the rebase. You can change the comment symbol using:

git config core.commentChar ";"
# Then put it back with
git config core.commentChar "#"

Push only a commit at a time

When you have multiple commits in waiting. Or during/after a rebase. You can select the SHA of the commits you want to push and execute:

git push <remotename> <commit SHA>:<remotebranchname>

Other tips

Remove a folder from git but not local:

git rm -r --cached myFolder

Remove a folder from git:

    git remote add <remote nickname> https://github.com/user/repository
    git rm -r one-of-the-directories
    git commit -m "Remove duplicated directory"
    git push origin <your-git-branch> # typically 'master', but not always

Send an empty commit to trigger the pipeline:

git commit --allow-empty -m "trigger pipeline"

Other sources

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