Git Reference (Console)

This guide includes commonly used terminology and commands in Git.

About Git

Git is a distributed version control system designed to track changes in source code during software development. It allows multiple developers to collaborate on a project simultaneously, managing changes efficiently. Git works by creating snapshots of a project’s files at different points in time, called commits. These commits form a history of changes, enabling users to track progress, revert to previous states, and merge different branches of development. Git operates locally on a user’s machine, allowing for offline work, and facilitates collaboration through remote repositories hosted on platforms like GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. Developers can pull changes from and push changes to these remote repositories, enabling seamless collaboration and version control across distributed teams.

Terminology

Repository (Repo): A directory where your Git projects are stored, including all versions of files and directories.

Local Repository: The version of the repository that is on your local machine.

Remote Repository: The version of the repository that is hosted on a remote server, such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket.

Clone: A copy of a remote repository downloaded to your local machine.

Commit: A snapshot of changes made to the files in the repository. Commits are used to record the history of changes.

Branch: A separate line of development within a repository. Branches allow you to work on different features or fixes simultaneously.

Master/Main: The default branch in most repositories, representing the main line of development.

Checkout: The process of switching between different branches or commits in your repository.

Merge: The process of integrating changes from one branch into another.

Rebase: A process of moving or combining a sequence of commits to a new base commit.

Pull: Fetching changes from a remote repository and merging them into your local repository.

Push: Sending your local commits to a remote repository.

Fetch: Downloading objects and references from a remote repository without merging them into your local repository.

Stash: A mechanism to temporarily save changes that are not yet ready to be committed, allowing you to work on something else.

Conflict: Occurs when changes in different branches or commits are incompatible and need to be resolved manually.

HEAD: A reference to the most recent commit on the current branch.

Index (Staging Area): An intermediate area where changes are added before they are committed.

Blame: A command that shows the last modification of each line in a file, used to identify who made specific changes.

Tag: A reference to a specific point in the repository’s history, often used for marking release versions.

Fork: A copy of a repository that allows you to freely experiment with changes without affecting the original project.

Commands

git init Initializes a new Git repository in the current directory.

git clone [url] Creates a local copy of a remote repository.

git status Displays the state of the working directory and the staging area, showing which changes have been staged, which haven’t, and which files aren’t being tracked by Git.

git add [file] or git add . to add all files Adds a file to the staging area, preparing it to be included in the next commit.

git commit -m "[message]" Records or snapshots the changes made to the repository in the staging area with a descriptive message explaining the changes.

git push [remote] [branch] Sends local branch commits to the remote repository branch.

git pull [remote] [branch] Fetches and merges changes from the remote server to your working directory.

git branch Lists all the local branches in your repository. With -a it shows all branches (local + remote).

git checkout [branch] Switches to the specified branch and updates the working directory.

git merge [branch] Merges the specified branch into the current branch.

git fetch [remote] Downloads all changes from the remote repository, but does not integrate any of these changes into your working files.

git log Shows a list of commits made in the current repository. Useful for viewing history.

git diff Shows file differences not yet staged.

git reset [file] Unstages the file, but it preserves the file contents.

git reset --hard [commit] Resets the current branch to the specified commit, discarding all changes in the staging area and working directory.

git rm [file] Removes files from the working directory and staging area.