Git Cheatsheet

I use this as a quick reference for commands that I already know about (where I may have forgotten the exact syntax etc), so there is therefore not a lot of explanation (which you can find with a bit of googling if needed).

If you see something that could be done better, let me know in the comments

Normal Workflow

This is a typical workflow for me (though I don’t always use all of these commands). See below for some details about what each of these git commands do.

git checkout branch_name

git pull

git status

git checkout -b new_branch_name

git branch

~ do some work ~

git add .

git commit -am "Commit message"

git push -u origin new_branch_name

Manual Merge Workflow

Checkout and update the branch that will be altered (merged into):

git checkout master
git pull

git merge other_branch

If there are merge conflicts, use git status to see where they are, then edit those files to fix the conflicts. Once all conflicts have been resolved, run git add on the conflicted files followed by git commit to generate the merge commit.

Checkout

Checkout an old Commit

git checkout commit_reference

Use git log to get old commit references for the branch.

Checkout a Particular File

git checkout origin/staging --filename

origin/staging can be a previous commit (use git log), etc.

Checkout the Previous Branch

git checkout -

Delete

Delete a branch on local and github (remote)

git branch -d branch_name
git push origin :branch_name

Rename

Rename a branch on local and github (remote)

git branch -m old_branch_name new_branch_name
git push origin :new_branch_name

Now delete the old branch on github.

Undo

Check (online) reference docs before attempting an undo as what you can do depends on where in the process you are.

Undo a merge

git merge --abort

Undo a commit

git reset --soft 'HEAD^'

This undoes a commit without losing changes to files.

Undo a Bundle Update

git checkout -- Gemfile.lock

Sometimes Gemfile.lock is updated by bundle, and whatever you do in git does not work as bundle keeps updating it (I do not want to push these changes to Gemfile.lock). In that case the following has worked for me (remove the file and fetch it again):

git rm -f Gemfile.lock
git fetch
git checkout FETCH_HEAD -- Gemfile.lock

Upstream

Set upstream branch

git branch --set-upstream local_branch_name

This is not necessary if you have been using push -u

Clone

git clone git@xyz.git new_folder_name

History and Status

git log

git branch

git status

What has been changed

See gitready.com/intermediate/2009/01/30/finding-what-has-been-changed.html

git diff

Save and Stash

git stash
git stash pop

Save work with a name

git stash save -u "my_work"