Chapter 6 GIT Commands

6.1 GIT Terminology

origin : connection pointing to the remote repository
master : name of your default branch. A branch in Git is simply a lightweight movable pointer to a commit
working directory : local repository
.git directory : Git stores all of its repository data in the .git directory. This is created when a local repository is initialised using the init command
.git.ignore : Git uses this file to determine which files and directories to ignore, before you make a commit
hash: the commit command creates a unique ID called a hash, which is an absolute path
HEAD : pointer to the last commit of the branch you are currently on. If you are on the master branch, then HEAD and master will refer to the same commit. This is a relative path. To see the previous commit use HEAD~1

Initialise

Remotes

git remote add <remote name> <url> creates a new connection to a remote repository is the shortcut for the and is typically set to ‘origin’
git remote show <remote name> shows which branch is automatically pushed to when you run git push while on certain branches. It also shows you which remote branches on the server you don’t yet have, which remote branches you have that have been removed from the server, and multiple local branches that are able to merge automatically with their remote-tracking branch when you run git pull
git remote rename <remote name> <new remote name> rename a remote
git remote remove <remote name> remove a remote
git remote -v lists the remotes that are configured

Branches

git branch <new branch name> adds a new branch, a structure with trees for saved states of files
git checkout <branch name> <filename> checks out (i.e. switches to another version) an old version of a file
git branch lists all of the branches in a repository, with a * next to the branch you are currently on
git checkout <branch-name> switches to another branch-name
git checkout -b branch-name> creates the branch and switches you to it
git merge source destination merges two branches

Status

git status shows which files have changed/new in your repository
git diff shows the changes you made to the file
git diff --staged shows the difference between the last committed change and what’s in the staging area
git diff directory shows the changes to the files in the directory
git diff -r HEAD -r flag refers to compare to a particular revision
git log view the log of the project’s history
git show <hash> view the details of a specific commit, with the first few characters of the commit’s hash
git annotate <filename> shows who made the last change to each line of a file and when

Clone

git clone <remote name> to clone a repo and download a copy of a repo to a local folder This automatically creates the remote called origin

Add

git add adds from your working directory to your staging area, ie specifies what will go in a snapshot
git add <filename> stages a file
git add -A stages all new, modified and deleted
git add <foldername>/* adds folder and contents to your staging area

Remove

git clean -n shows a list of files that are in the repository, but whose history Git is not currently tracking
git clean -f will then delete those files

Undo

git reset undo ALL changes that have been staged with git add
git reset HEAD <filename> undo changes to a specific filename that have been staged on HEAD

Commit

git commit -m "<message>" commits the file with the snapshot to the local repository locally. The commit records the changes to the file ie actually takes the snapshot and makes a permanent record of it

Fetch

git fetch gets any new work since last clone or fetch. Fetch does not however merge remote work with our work

Pull

git pull automatically fetches and then merges that remote branch into your current branch

Push

Note on adding files to the remote:

When it is your first push from a repo, you will first have to make the link between the local and remote repository via: git push --set-upstream origin master, or shorter git push -u origin master. As of then, git push will refer to the upstream branch you’ve set: i.e. origin / master