# Helpful Git Commands

# Basic

# View all branches:

git branch -a

# Adds everything and makes the commit at the same time:

git commit -am "message"

# Shows all commits with messages:

git ls-files

# Friendlier display of all commits:

git log --oneline --graph --decorate

or eliminate the --graph flag and just use the other two. That being said, elminating --decorate didn't seem to change anything either, maybe the way git is setup by default at the time of the course.

# Remove a branch:

git branch -d ipsum-text

# Remove dead branches:

git fetch -p

-p is like "prune", getting rid of any branches no longer in service

# Pull down local branches, commits, etc.

git fetch

# Update all branches' files at once

Pull by default is simple, meaning it'll only pull the current branch when used onits own, in order to pull every branch at the same time, use:

git pull --all

# Delete a remote branch:

git push origin :update-readme

The : tells the remote repo the branch that follows it needs to be deleted

# Aliases

# Create an aliased command

Make a new shorter command to include parameters that you'd normally have totype:

git config --global alias.hist "log --oneline --graph --decorate --all"

That'll bind that git log command with the flags to git hist. You can check to seewhat aliases you already have with...

git config --global --list

You can also pass a file to that as a parameter at the end, which will only showthe commits pertaining to the respective file...

git hist -- LICENSE.md

# File Manipulation

# Backout changes in a file

Example below for the README.md file. The first command unstages the file. The second reverts the changes made to it to the last commit's version.

git reset HEAD README.md
git checkout -- README.md

# Rename a file in the repo

git mv example.txt demo.txt

This both renames the file physically in the folder and stages it in one step.

# Delete a file in the repo

git rm demo.txt

This both physically deletes the file and stages the change in one step.

# Properly update status of files

Git sees renaming a file as deleting the file and adding a new file to staging.iThis is incorrect behavior, but you can correct it but doing this add instead:

git add -A

That'll properly track all files as they should be with renames.

Stashing files

If you update a file then realize you wanted to make some move or alteration tothe git repo before the edit, you can stash your current changes to apply later.

git stash

Will stash any files altered after the last commit.

git stash --list

Will list your stashes

Then you can make the git repo changes you need to make then...

git stash pop

Will re-apply the stash file changes over the current files. At this point, you canmake another commit to get yourself back on track.

# Differences

# Looking at differences in commits

git diff d46c1b8 HEAD

Shows the differences between the two branches in the console, HEAD refersthe current commit, the other characters are the branch you're comparing to it.

git difftool

will launch the configured git diff'ing GUI tool. If none is configured, it'll launchopendiff, a system level GUI for showing diff's.

You can also look at differences between branches:

git diff updates master

# Looking at differences using GitHub

The online GitHub tool is a much better visual way of comparing differences incommits, tags, branches, release, etc.

# Go to Pull Requests

Choose the New Pull Request button to the right

Compare resources of any type by choosing them in the list or typing them into the list.

NOTE: At the time of this article, the dialog in the resource selector here ispretty lame. It only shows branches. You have to manually type in a tagname, etc. to see the diffs. And, when typing it in, the system will NOTfuzzy search the resource as it appears to be doing.

You can specify formulas in the resource dialogs as well, for example:

• develop@{3days} will show the develop branch commits at 3 days ago forward.

• develop@{2018-02-20} will show the develop branch commits at 2/20/2018 forward.

• HEAD@{3} will show the HEAD position at 3 days ago.

• HEAD^1 will show 1 last position of the HEAD.

# Branches

Create a branch, name it, and switch to it at the same time

git checkout -b updates

# Creating a merge

This was done while on the master branch:

git merge updates

You'll merge the name of the passed branch into the current branch with thiscommand. This performs a simple fast-forward style merge.

# Delete a branch

Once you've merged a branch into the master you may not want it anymore, so...

git branch -D updates

would delete the updates branch.

# Tags

# Create a tag

To create an annotated tag (-a means annotated):

git tag -a v1.0 -m "Release 1.0"

That creates a tag named v1.0 with a message Release 1.0.

# List current tags

git tag --list

To show an individual tag, for example the tag v1.0:

git show v1.0

# Delete a tag

git tag -d v1.0

# Time Traveling (Resets)

You can time travel back and forward through your commits without hesitation that work you did was deleted permanently using reset and reflog.

# Soft reset

git reset 38382bd --soft

This will just move HEAD to the specified commit, in this case 38382bd. Any files you changed/updated/etc. prior to doing this reset will be intact but now gitstatus will show them as modifications and/or deletions.

git reset a959f44

This is a mixed reset, the default. You can also add --mixed in back of the command, but it's not necessary for a mixed reset. The mixed reset moves HEAD to the specified commit and unstages anything necessary that will need to be committed. So it's essentially a soft reset with unstaging.

git reset f325ebe --hard

This is a hard reset. This will change files etc. to bring everything up 100% to the commit state specified. This also seems to delete commits that occured after the hard reset commit point, but this isn't the case as you'd see by using...

git reflog

This will show all actions taken during the current commit including all resetsmade. You can then do a hard reset, mixed reset, etc. back to the point in timeyou want.

# Remote Repositories

# List the remote repository

git remote -v

# Set the remote repository

git remote add origin https://github.com/rob-kistner/udemy-github-ultimate.git

# Pushing to remote repository

git push -u origin master --tags

The --tags flag sends all current tags in repository to the repo.

Clone a remote repo to a different folder name

git clone git@github.com:rob-kistner/my-website.git website

That would clone the my-website repo into the website folder.

# Update remote references

git remote set-url origin git@github.com:rob-kistner/website.git

Then to show information on the remote origin:

git show remote origin

# Fetch & Pull

# Fetch

Fetches are non-destructive. Best way to pull over remote changes is:

git fetch

Will fetch the remote branch.

git status

Will show the diverged status, if there are changes on both sides.

git pull

Will pull down the files from the remote repo. If a merge needs to get done it willalso merge it and commit everything at the same time.

# Rebase

git pull --rebase

Will pull down the remote branch, then apply whatever ahead changes you havelocally over it so you don't lose the local work.

# Tags

# Create a tag

git tag mytag master

creates a simple tag

git tag -a v0.1-alpha -m "Release 0.1 (Alpha)" e68492d

creates an annotated tag attached to a specific commit

# View tags

git tag

Will show a simple list of all the tags in the repo

git show v0.1-alpha

shows a specific annotated tag and all the details attached to it. Note: this can ONLY be used with annotated tags.

# Publish tags to remote

Tags are NOT, by default, pushed remotely when you use git push. You need to do them separately...

git push origin mytag

will push the individual mytag tag to the remote repo

git push --tags

will push ALL tags to the remote repo

# Delete Tags

git tag -d v0.1-alpha

deletes the specific tag v0.1-alpha.

git push origin :v0.1-alpha

pushes the deleted tag to the remote repo, essentially deleting it remotely.

# Move tag to a different commit

git tag -f mytag a856c53

will change mytag to commit a856c53. You can also just leave off the commit id and git will attach it to whatever commit HEAD is on:

git tag -f mytag

To force set the unstable tag remotely to match the local version, use:

git push --force origin unstable

# Issues

# Close issues from commit

You can close issues from a commit by including the issue number in the message, like this:

git commit -m "Message for issue, close #4"

That will close issue #4 in GitHub from the command line.