NoobGitCommands

Simple git command cheat sheet for the everday beginner who is likely their only contributor and doesn't need to get too deep.

Project Start

Two methods here, initializing local folders as a repository and then creating the remote repository online, or cloning an existing repository online to your local directories.

$ git init

Initializes the local directory as a local repository.

Then create a new repo online: https://github.com/new

$ git remote add origin https://github.com/YourAccount/RepoYouMade.git

This tells your local git repo that the name "origin" will be this specific url.

Or this instead of init:

$ git clone remote-url

Creates a local clone of whatever remote repository is at the URL.

While Working

$ git status

See if any files have been changed but not staged to be committed.

$ git add .

Adds all files to the staging area. Replace "." with the filename to add only a specific file.

$ git commit -m "This is an update"

Commit to updating the staged files on the repository, always leave a note with -m.

$ git status

Check the status again to verify only the staged files were committed and everything is as planned.

$ git push origin master

Pushes the changes to origin and the branch named master so that others can see it and work on it as well.

Status Checks

$ git status

Shows what is staged to be committed with git add and committed to the changes with git commit. Do this before add/commit and after to verify your sanity.

$ git log

List of commits in chronological order with their long jumbly names.

Next Day and Onward

$ git pull origin master

If any changes were made on the remote master branch, this will integrate all the changes with your local repository. This also makes sure you start the day with a clean copy of whatever it is you happen to be doing.

$ git fetch origin

If working with other people, this will tell you if any changes have been made but will not integrate them immediately.

$ git pull origin master

yoloswag all those changes into your copy.

$ git branch newbranchname

Creates a new branch, which is a good idea to do all the damn time whenever you try something diff, add new stuff, whatevers. Even bug fixing. Create a new branch.

$ git checkout newbranchname

Switches you to that other branch so you are no longer working directly on the safe and functional master branch, for example. All commits and changes are recorded on the checked out branch and kept separate so you can play around as much as you want.

$ git checkout master

Switches back to the master branch so that you can...

$ git merge newbranchname

This will merge all the cool new additions you've made under newbranch into the master branch