1. Configure Git
To set up your Git username and email globally on your machine:
git config --global user.name "username" # Set your Git username
git config --global user.email "email" # Set your Git email
git config --list # Display the current Git configuration (username and email)
2. Git Status and Git Clone
Clone a remote repository to your local machine:
git clone <url> # Copy repository to the local machine
Check the status of your local repository:
git status # Show the current status of the repository
Git Status Breakdown:
- untracked: A new file that has not been added or committed.
- unstaged: A file that has been added but not committed.
- unchanged: No changes have been made.
- changed: Changes have been made but not yet added or committed.
3. Git Add and Commit
Add specific files or all changes and commit them:
git add <filename> # Add a specific file to the staging area
git add . # Add all changes (modified and untracked files)
git commit -m "Your commit message" # Commit the changes with a message
4. Push Local Repo to Remote
To upload your local repository changes to the remote repository:
git push [alias] [branch] # Push changes to a specific alias and branch
git remote add <alias> <url> # Add a remote alias (e.g., 'origin')
git push -u [alias] [branch] # Save the alias and branch for future pushes
5. Git Initialization
Initialize a new Git repository:
git init # Initialize a new Git repository
6. Git Branches
Manage Git branches with the following commands:
git branch # List all local branches
git branch -m <oldbranch> <newbranch> # Rename a branch
git checkout <branchname> # Switch to another branch
git checkout -b <branchname> # Create and switch to a new branch
git branch -d <branchname> # Delete a branch (ensure you're not on it)
git diff <branchname> # Compare the current branch with another
7. Git Merge
Merge changes from one branch into another:
git merge <branchname> # Merge changes from <branchname> into the current branch
8. Pull Request and Syncing Changes
To pull updates from the remote repository to your local one:
git pull # Pull the latest changes from the remote repository
git pull [alias] [branch] # Pull changes from a specific alias and branch
9. Undoing Changes
If You Have Only Added Changes:
git reset <filename> # Unstage a file from the staging area
git reset # Unstage all files that have been added
If You Have Committed Changes:
git reset HEAD~1 # Undo the last commit (one step back)
git reset <commit_hash> # Reset to a specific commit hash
git reset --hard <commit_hash> # Hard reset to a commit and reflect changes in your editor
git log # View all commit hashes and logs
10. Forking Repositories
When contributing to open-source projects, you can fork a repository, which creates a copy of the repo under your GitHub account. Afterward, you can make changes and submit a pull request:
# Fork a repository on GitHub and clone it locally
git clone <forked_repo_url> # Clone your forked repository
11. .gitignore
gitignore is a file that tells Git which files or directories to ignore in a project. This is useful for excluding files that are not necessary for version control, such as build files, temporary files, or sensitive information.
for example, if you want to ignore all .log files and the node_modules directory, your .gitignore file would look like this:
*.log
node_modules/
Make changes, commit them, and push to your fork. Finally, create a pull request on GitHub to merge your changes into the original repository.