Some useful Git commands

Hi friends,

Today I would like to share you a list of Git commands that I consider really useful when we work with this great version control  system. Enjoy it!

Configuring your Git

// Disable autocrlf to avoid warnings in command line
git config --global core.autocrlf false

// Set username and email (global)
git config --global user.name “My user name” 
git config --global user.email “my-email@awesome.com” 

// Display configuration
git config -l 

// Get some help :)
git contig -h

Managing Git repositories

Initializing a repo

git init

Adding files for tracking or to the staging area

// Add all .txt files
git add *.txt

// Add all in the current directory
git add .

// Add a single file
git add README.md

Resetting your files in the staging area to the working directory

git reset HEAD <file>
git reset HEAD -- <path/to/file>

// Examples
git reset HEAD index.html
git reset HEAD .

Doing your changes persistent in the local repository

// Do a commit with all files in staging area
git commit -m "My custom message for this commit"

Watching previos version of files

// Watch a version of a very specific file (using the commit ID)
git checkout YOUR_COMMIT_ID -- path/my_file.js

// Return to the version of that file in HEAD
git checkout HEAD -- path/my_file.js

Watching logs

// Watch the log (details)
git log 

// Watch the log in one line per commit
git log --oneline 

// See two last commits
git log --oneline -2

// Show diff between files
git show

Merging a branch (my-branch) into other (master)

// Where do you want to merge?
git checkout master

// Which branch do you want to merge?
git merge my-branch

Restoring files

See the stored version of an specific file in a commit:

git checkout COMMIT_ID "path/to/the/file"

// Example
git checkout 6881326  "widgets/Awesome Widget/MyAwesomeWidget.dust.tpl.htm"

Working with branches

Creating, deleting and switching to a branch

// Get a list of branches in the repository
git branch

// Create a new branch
git branch my-branch

// Switch to a branch
git checkout my-branch

// A shorthand for two previous commands (create and switch)
git checkout -b other-branch 

// Delete a branch
git branch -d my-branch

Working with submodules

A very nice feature available on git is the possibility of using modules, for example when you clone CakePHP repository you could get DebugKit as a submodule, if you want to clone the main repository + submodules, use following command:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/alex-arriaga/universidad-del-pastel.git

Adding a new submodule

git submodule add <GIT_REPO_URL> <SUBMODULE_NAME>
 
// Example
git submodule add https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap.git bootstrap

If someone else added a new submodule, and you want to get submodules, you will need to use the update operation to obtain the module recently added:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Changing a submodule for another one

• Update .gitmodules with the path to the new repository
• Remove the corresponding line from the “.git/config” file
• Delete the corresponding directory in the “.git/modules/modules/YOUR_OLD_SUBMODULE” directory (rm -rf)
• Delete the checked out submodule directory itself (unsure if this is necessary)
• Run:

git submodule init and git submodule update

Working with remotes

Forcing a push in origin (remote) to a previous version as in our local repository

// Suppose you want to return to a previous version
// in your local repository
git reset --hard YOUR_COMMIT_ID

// Then, probably you will need to force the remote to stay 
// in the same as your local repository
git push origin master --force

// Or
git push origin master -f

Sometimes if the remote server doesn’t have well-configured SSL certificates, you could get an error. If you want to disable SSL verification which I don’t recommend, use next command:

// Disable the SSL CERT verify globally
git config --global http.sslVerify false

// Disable the SSL CERT verify only in current repository
git config http.sslVerify false

Changing the URL of a remote:

git remote set-url <REPOSITORY_NAME> <NEW_URL>

// Example
git remote set-url origin git://new.url.here

Deleting remote branches

// List all the branches (local and remote)
git branch -a

// Delete a branch
git push origin --delete MY_BRANCH