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 wiki document "Version Control with git", and the official Git documentation (opens new window), the "git book".

Local .git/config file

First of all, take a look at 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 last 5 commits (date, id and message)
git log <path> -5 - show 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 last committed version in 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 what's new or changed to the "index" of the repository
git commit -m "an informative message" - really make contents of "index" persistent and traceable

Undoing changes:

A single file:

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

Keeping two versions in parallel:

git branch - create a branch (locally)
git checkout <branchname> - change current "working directory" to branchname
git merge <frombranch> <tobranch> - keeps perfect traceability
git pull --rebase - get most recent changes and "flatten" the graph
git push --force - send the rebased, simplified graph to 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 first copy of remote branch
git fetch - refresh metadata info. check what's new remotely (but don't apply changes)
git pull origin master - get changes from remote master branch and apply them to local branch
git push - upload changes to '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