Useful Git Commands

For those looking to use the most popular repository storage site in software development, check out these commands that will get you started.

Git is a most widely used and powerful version control system for tracking changes in computer files and coordinating work on those files among multiple people. It is primarily used for source code management in software development, but it can be used to keep track of changes in any set of files.

Git was developed by Linus Torvalds in 2005 as an distributed open source software version control software and of course it is free to use. As a distributed revision control system it is aimed at speed, data integrity, and support for distributed, non-linear work flows.

While other version control systems e.g. CVS, SVN keeps most of their data like commit logs on central server, every git repository on every computer is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full version tracking abilities, independent of network access or a central server.

However almost all IDEs support git out of the box and we do not require submit the git commands manually but it is always good to understand these commands. Below is a list of some git commands to work efficiently with git.

Git Help

The most useful command in git is git help which provides us all the help we require. If we type git help in terminal, we will get:

usage: git [--version] [--help] [-C <path>] [-c <name>=<value>]
 [--exec-path[=<path>]] [--html-path] [--man-path] [--info-path]
 [-p | --paginate | --no-pager] [--no-replace-objects] [--bare]
 [--git-dir=<path>] [--work-tree=<path>] [--namespace=<name>]
 <command> [<args>]

These are common Git commands used in various situations:

start a working area (see also: git help tutorial)
 clone Clone a repository into a new directory
 init Create an empty Git repository or reinitialize an existing one

work on the current change (see also: git help everyday)
 add Add file contents to the index
 mv Move or rename a file, a directory, or a symlink
 reset Reset current HEAD to the specified state
 rm Remove files from the working tree and from the index

examine the history and state (see also: git help revisions)
 bisect Use binary search to find the commit that introduced a bug
 grep Print lines matching a pattern
 log Show commit logs
 show Show various types of objects
 status Show the working tree status

grow, mark and tweak your common history
 branch List, create, or delete branches
 checkout Switch branches or restore working tree files
 commit Record changes to the repository
 diff Show changes between commits, commit and working tree, etc
 merge Join two or more development histories together
 rebase Reapply commits on top of another base tip
 tag Create, list, delete or verify a tag object signed with GPG

collaborate (see also: git help workflows)
 fetch Download objects and refs from another repository
 pull Fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch
 push Update remote refs along with associated objects

'git help -a' and 'git help -g' list available sub-commands and some concept guides.
See 'git help <command>' or 'git help <concept>' to read about a specific sub-command or concept.

Command git help -a will give us complete list of git commands:

Available git commands in '/usr/local/git/libexec/git-core'
 add gc receive-pack
 add--interactive get-tar-commit-id reflog
 am grep remote
 annotate gui remote-ext
 apply gui--askpass remote-fd
 archimport gui--askyesno remote-ftp
 archive gui.tcl remote-ftps
 askpass hash-object remote-http
 bisect help remote-https
 bisect--helper http-backend repack
 blame http-fetch replace
 branch http-push request-pull
 bundle imap-send rerere
 cat-file index-pack reset
 check-attr init rev-list
 check-ignore init-db rev-parse
 check-mailmap instaweb revert
 check-ref-format interpret-trailers rm
 checkout log send-email
 checkout-index ls-files send-pack
 cherry ls-remote sh-i18n--envsubst
 cherry-pick ls-tree shortlog
 citool mailinfo show
 clean mailsplit show-branch
 clone merge show-index
 column merge-base show-ref
 commit merge-file stage
 commit-tree merge-index stash
 config merge-octopus status
 count-objects merge-one-file stripspace
 credential merge-ours submodule
 credential-manager merge-recursive submodule--helper
 credential-store merge-resolve subtree
 credential-wincred merge-subtree svn
 cvsexportcommit merge-tree symbolic-ref
 cvsimport mergetool tag
 daemon mktag unpack-file
 describe mktree unpack-objects
 diff mv update
 diff-files name-rev update-git-for-windows
 diff-index notes update-index
 diff-tree p4 update-ref
 difftool pack-objects update-server-info
 difftool--helper pack-redundant upload-archive
 fast-export pack-refs upload-pack
 fast-import patch-id var
 fetch prune verify-commit
 fetch-pack prune-packed verify-pack
 filter-branch pull verify-tag
 fmt-merge-msg push web--browse
 for-each-ref quiltimport whatchanged
 format-patch read-tree worktree
 fsck rebase write-tree
 fsck-objects rebase--helper

And command git help -g will give us a list git concepts which git think is good for us:

The common Git guides are:

 attributes Defining attributes per path
 everyday Everyday Git With 20 Commands Or So
 glossary A Git glossary
 ignore Specifies intentionally untracked files to ignore
 modules Defining submodule properties
 revisions Specifying revisions and ranges for Git
 tutorial A tutorial introduction to Git (for version 1.5.1 or newer)
 workflows An overview of recommended workflows with Git

We can use git help <command> or git help <concept> command to know more about about a specific command or concept.