git commands

About git

Version control software, such as git, is an important tool for programming. Git allows you to keep track of what you did when, undo any changes you have decided you don't want, and collaborate at scale with other people.

For details, see the wiki document "Version Control with git", and the official Git documentation, the "git book".

Local .git/config file

First of all, take a look at the file .git/config. This file often contains important customizations that hold for the current project. You should know that many of these entries might modify the commands shown below. And there might be a lot of these customizations.

The most important git commands are listed here, but they are not necessarily always applied in this order.

Most common git commands

Read-Only Commands

Getting the current state of the repository

git status
git log -5 - show the last 5 commits (date, id, and message)
git log <path> -5 - show the last 5 commits of a single file/path (with hashes)
git log --pretty=format:"%h %ad | %C(yellow)%s%d%Creset %C(cyan)[%an]%Creset %Cgreen(%cr)%Creset" --date=short - show on one line, colored
git diff <filename> - compare changed file with the last committed version in the repo
git diff hash1..hash2 <filename> - display changes between older versions

Managing local changes

These commands do something to your local repository.

Adding things:

git add . - add everything that's new or changed to the "index" of the repository
git commit -m "an informative message" - really make the contents of the "index" persistent and traceable

Undoing changes:

A single file:

git checkout <filename> - restore the latest committed version from the repository, overwriting the current file

Keeping two versions in parallel:

git branch - create a branch (locally)
git checkout <branchname> - change the current "working directory" to branchname
git merge <frombranch> <tobranch> - keeps perfect traceability
git pull --rebase - get the most recent changes and "flatten" the graph
git push --force - send the rebased, simplified graph to the remote repo. Must force

Less important

Less important or common commands, also for managing local changes

git init
git version
git ignore *.pdf - (in pkg "git-extras") do not put PDF files under version control.

Working with a remote repository

git clone - download and make the first copy of the remote branch
git fetch - refresh metadata info. check what's new remotely (but don't apply changes)
git pull origin master - get changes from the remote master branch and apply them to the local branch
git push - upload changes to the 'origin' repo
git diff --check - show files with leftover conflict markers (see also: bottom of page)

git Commands for mDIS

It is impossible to describe a recipe here that can be used under all circumstances. Often the sequence of commands is highly specific and depends on what you need to achieve.

TBC

git commands combined with other unix tools