Cheat sheet

Here are the commands we used in the session and their meaning.

Commands to deal with branches:

git branch <branch_name> - create a new branch <branch_name>.
git checkout <branch_name> - go to branch <branch_name>.
git branch - check which local branches you have and where you are (in green).
git branch -a - show both local and remote tracking branches.
git branch -vv - to see local tracking branches.
git merge <branch_name> - merges the branch <branch_name> into your current branch.
git merge <remote>/<branch_name> - merges the remote branch <branch_name> into your current branch.
git branch -d <brach_name> - delete the branch <branch_name>.
git branch -u <remote>/<brach_name> - make the current branch a local tracking branch for the branch <remote>/<branch_name>.

Commands to interact with Github:

git clone <github_repository_url> - clone a remote github repository.
git remote add <remote> <github_repository_url> - adds a link between your local repository and the remote github repository with the url <github_repository_url>. <remote> is typically origin.
git remote -v - shows a list of remotes and respective URLs.
git push <remote> <branch_name> - push your local changes in your current branch into the branch <branch_name> in the <remote> github repository.
git fetch <remote> <branch_name> - gets all changes on <branch_name> in the <remote> github repository but does not merge them with your current branch. This is useful if you just want to check what the difference is between a remote branch and a local branch.
git pull origin <branch_name> - gets all changes on <branch_name> in the <remote> and merges them with your current branch.

Some mixed commands:

git init - start a new git repository in the folder where you are (always do git status before git init to make sure you are not inside a git repository already).
git status - remember, it is your best friend, it tells you what is the state of your repository and sometimes what you should do.
git branch - this is your second best friend, it tells you in which branch you are (you can also see where you are when you do git status)
git log - shows the history of commits in the current branch. Also allows you to see if branches are synchronized.
git log --oneline - shows the history of commits in a summarized form.
git rm --cached <file_name> - removes the file with name <file_name> from your git repo, so it won't be tracked by git anymore, but the file stays in your computer, it is not deleted.
git cherry-pick <commit_hash> - will copy the commit with hash <commit_hash> from another branch to your current branch. To find the hash for the commit you want use git log on the branch where the commit exists.
git rebase -i HEAD~<N> - will rebase the last <N> commits. It will allow you to drop/remove a commit from the middle or change the content of a commit from the past.

Commands for stashing:

git stash - will stash your current changes, i.e., save them in a safe place so you can move to other branches without your changes being overwritten.
git stash list - will show the list of all stashes you have.
git stash pop <stash_id> - will recover the changes in <stash_id> for you and delete them from the stash list. You can get the <stash_id> by doing git stash list, it looks like stash@{0}, where the 0 can be any number.
git stash apply <stash_id> - will recover the changes in <stash_id> for you. The changes will not be deleted from the stash with this command.

Commands for checking differences:

git diff - will show all the changes in the files in your workspace, that are not staged for commit yet (i.e. you didn't do git add yet).
git diff --staged - will show all the changes in the files in your staging/index are (i.e. after you do git add).
git diff --stat - shows which files in your workspace have been changed, and the type of changes (adding and/or removing content).
git diff --staged --stat - shows which files in your staging/index area have been changed, and the type of changes (adding and/or removing content).
git diff <branch_name> - shows the differences between your current branch and another branch named <branch_name>.
git diff <commit_hash> - shows the differences between your current commit and a specific commit with hash <commit_hash>.
git diff <commit_hash_1> <commit_hash_2> - shows the differences between two specific commits, one with hash <commit_hash_1> and the other with hash <commit_hash_2>.

Commands to go back in history:

git checkout <commit_hash> - you use this to go back to a specific commit and take a look at your code back then, but do NOT ever change your code at this point, since you are in a detached HEAD state when you go back to a specific commit. Remember, you wouldn't walk around if your head wasn't glued to your neck :). To go back to your latest commit you just do git checkout <branch_name>, where <branch_name> is the name of the branch where you are.
git revert <commit_hash> - will revert whatever was done in a specific commit with hash <commit_hash>. Be careful with possible conflicts. If you get conflicts and you want to abort the revert, you can do it with git revert --abort.
git reset --soft <commit_hash> - will remove all commits until the commit with hash <commit_hash>, but the file changes will stay in the staging/index area.
git reset --mixed <commit_hash> - will remove all commits until the commit with hash <commit_hash>, but the file changes will stay in your filesystem.
git reset --hard <commit_hash> - will remove all commits until the commit with hash <commit_hash>, as well as the changes in your files. Be very careful with this one!

Note: you can get the commit hash for a specific commit using either git log or git log --oneline

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