Ultimate Git Cheat Sheet that Every Software Developer Needs

install git on your computer

git download link for windows

use git bash as a terminal, it has unix command compatibility

After installing Git, verify the installation

git --version

You should see the installed version of Git after this command.

Configure Your Git Identity

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your.email@example.com"

This information will be used to know "who did a specific commit" in a collaborative environment

git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

this Specifies the default text editor that Git will use for commit messages

Verify Your Configuration

git config --global --list  
/* used to verify if all configurations are saved */

cat .gitconfig 
/*use above command in your home directory to view and 
set all configurations*/

git initialisation in a repo

mkdir testdir
ls  //checks if testdir is created
touch xyz.html //creates a new file -- use in gitbash

git init
/*git init creates a new .git directory which tracks changes in 
our source code during development*/

ls -la 
/*ls -la shows us all directories including hidden , useful to check 
if .git dir is created */

git remote add origin <remote_repository_URL>
/* You typically do this once you start working on a project
 so that when you push code it goes into this remote repo.*/

git remote -v //checks if remote is setup or not

.gitignore

this file specify which files and directories that should not be tracked by Git

• This is particularly used to exclude

  • temporary files

  • build artifacts

  • files that are not relevant to the source code

  • files that should not be shared with others .

gitignore file generator link

uses of gitlens extension in vscode

• we can see who last modified a line of code and when

• Provides a summary of recent changes directly above the affected code block

• shows a file history,line history [shows all commits performed on a specific file/ line]

• Compare your current branch with other branches

this allows developers to quickly find specific changes related to a bug fix or feature.

raising a pull request

git clone <repository-url>
git checkout master // switching to master branch
git checkout -b "branch_name" // creates new branch

the above code creates a new branch ,before creating new branch checkout to master [create new branch on existing branch only if you have such requirement]

usually branch names will be jira id's in companies

git branch //shows all existing branches

git checkout "branch_name" 
/* takes us to an existing branch here do the required changes */

git add file1.html file2.txt     /*adds specific files*/
git add .    /*adds all files*/
git status    /*shows if files are staged or not, or committed */

above code adds files to staging area

git commit -m "commit message"

git push --set-upstream <remote_name> <current_local_branch_name>
/*tells to which branch should git push code on a simple git push 
command, this is one time setup for a branch*/

git push /*pushes code to upstream remote branch*/

git push <remote_name> <local_branch_name>:<remote_branch_name>

/*by using above command you can push code from your local branch 
to a remote branch with a different name. communicate with your
team if you are pushing changes to a shared remote branch.*/

after pushing go to github and raise a pull request from your remote branch

git pull

its important to do git pull from origin master daily and solve merge conflicts that are due to latest commits on master, so that you can raise a conflict free pull-request, make sure you commit your code before doing a pull

git pull origin master
git pull 
/* pulls from our current remote upstream branch,
 use this if someone does changes to your branch */ 
git pull origin <other_remote_branch_name>
/* use this command to pull code from others branch */

git log

git log /*display a list of all commits in the current branch*/
git log --oneline /* Displays each commit on a single line*/

git reset

git reset --hard HEAD~1 /*undoing the most recent commit*/
git push --force /*removing the latest commit which is unwanted from 
                   remote */

git reset --hard <hash> 

explanation:

current commit history
A -- B -- C -- D (HEAD)
/*i dont want changes of C,D commits and want to remove them 
permanantly */
/*Assume the hash for commit B is abcd1234*/
git reset --hard abcd1234

resulting commit history
A -- B (HEAD)

the above action is generally irreversible. Once you've reset hard and discarded changes, they cannot be recovered

git stash

Git stash is a powerful tool that allows you to temporarily shelve changes you've made in your working branch, allowing you to work on some other branch without committing changes or losing your work.

git stash 
git stash pop /*apply the most recent stash to your working branch*/
git stash list /*shows all hashes*/
git stash apply@{2} /*apply a specific stash from the list*/
git stash drop stash@{1} /*removes a specific stash from the list*/
git stash clear /*clears the complete stash*/

git diff

git diff /*shows the difference between 
the working branch and the staging area*/

git diff <any-prevcommit-hash> <currentcommit-hash> /*shows the 
difference between 2 commits*/

git diff branch1..branch2 /*shows the difference between 2 branches*/

git checkout <commit-hash>

• it is used to inspect the state of your repository at a specific commit. This is useful for debugging or understanding the history of changes.

git checkout <commit-hash>
git checkout <commit-hash> -- myfile.txt 
/*shows how a file is in a specific commit, do a checkout to master
once your research is done in a prev commit */