Git Commands

A Reference Guide

Git Branch Commands

git branch – Display a list of the local branches in your Git repository.
git branch -a – Display a list of both local branches and remote branches in your Git repository.
git branch -c – Copy a Git branch.
git branch -d <branch-name> – Delete a local Git branch. This command will not work if the branch you are attempting to delete has unmerged changes.
git branch -D <branch-name> – Delete a local Git branch with unmerged changes.
git branch -m <branch-name> <new-branch-name> – Rename a Git branch.
git branch -r – Display a list of the remote branches in your Git repository.
git push <remote> --delete <remote-branch-name> – Delete a remote Git branch.
git push --set-upstream <remote> <branch> – Set an upstream branch. Running this command will push your local branch to the new remote branch.

git checkout <branch-name> – Switch to a different Git branch.
git checkout -b <branch-name> – Create a new branch and switch to it.
git checkout -b <branch-name><remote-name>/<branch-name> – Create a local branch from the remote Git branch and checkout that branch.
git checkout <commit hash> – Checkout a previous Git commit.
git checkout <tag name> – Checkout a Git tag in a detached HEAD state.
git checkout -b <branch-name><tag-name> – Checkout a Git tag as a branch.

git cherry-pick [insert commit reference] – Apply a commit’s changes onto a different branch.

git clone <repository-url> – Clone a specified remote repository. See Git-SCM’s best practices for remote URL format.
git clone <repository-url> <directory-name> – Clone a repository and name the local directory.
git clone <repository-url> --origin <name> – Clone a repository and name the remote (<name>). If you do not wish to name the remote, Git will provide the default name origin.
git clone <repository-url> --branch <branch-name> – Clone a repository and checkout the specific branch.
git clone <repository-url> --depth <depth> – Clone a repository with a specified number of commits (<depth>).
git clone <repository-url> --no-tags – Clone a repository without copying the repo’s tags.

git status – Display a list of files in your staging directory with accompanying file status.
git add – Stage file changes. Running this command with an associated file name will stage the file changes to your staging directory.
git commit – Save changes to your Git repository. Running this command with an associated file name will save the file changes to your repo.
git commit -a – Add all modified and deleted files in your working directory to the current commit.
git commit --amend – Amend a Git commit. Edit a Git commit message by adding a message in quotation marks after the command.
git commit -m – Add a Git commit message. Add your message in quotation marks following the command.

git config --global – Customize configurations stored in your home directory, and can overwrite Git config system settings.
git config --email – Sets the email associated with your Git commits and other Git actions.
git config --system – Customize configuration settings for your operating system.
git --config user.name – Sets the username associated with your Git commits and other Git actions.
git config --list – View all of your Git config settings including the local, global, and system levels.
git config --local – Customize settings that are Git repository specific and overwrite Git configurations on the global and system level.

git merge – Combine two or more development histories together. Used in combination with fetch, this will combine the fetched history from a remote branch into the currently checked out local branch.
git merge <branch-name> – Merge changes from one branch into the branch you currently have checked out.
git merge --abort – Aborts the merge process and restores the project’s state to before the merge was attempted. This works as a failsafe when a conflict occurs.
git merge --continue – Attempt to complete a merge that was stopped due to file conflicts after resolving the merge conflict.
git merge --squash – Combine all changes from the branch being merged into a single commit rather than preserving them as individual commits.
git merge --no-commit – Combine branch into the current branch, but do not make a new commit.
git merge --no-ff – Creates a merge commit instead of attempting a fast-forward.

git pull – This will perform a git fetch followed by a git merge FETCH_HEAD, and will allow you to fetch from and integrate with another repository or a local branch.
git pull --quiet – Suppress the output text after both git fetch and git merge.
git pull --verbose – Expand the output text after both git fetch and git merge.

git pull --squash – Combine all changes from the branch being merged into a single commit, rather than preserving the individual commits.
git pull --no-commit – Combine the currently checked out branch with the remote upstream branch.
git pull --no-ff – Create a merge commit in all cases, even when the merge could instead be resolved as a fast-forward.

git pull --all – Fetch all remotes.
git pull --depth=<depth> – Fetch a limited number of commits.
git pull --dry-run – Show the action that would be completed without actually making changes to your repo.
git pull --prune – Remove all remote references that no longer exist on the remote.
git pull --no-tags – Do not fetch tags.

git push – Push the current checked out branch to the default remote origin.
git push <remote><branch> – Push the specified branch along with all of its necessary commits to your destination remote repository.
git push <remote> --force – Force a Git push in a non-fast-forward merge. This option forces the update of a remote ref even when that is not the ancestor of the local ref. This can cause the remote repository to loose commits, so use with care.
git push <remote> --all – Push all local branches to a specified remote.
git push <remote> --tags – Push all local tags to a specified remote. Tags are not automatically sent when using --all.

git rebase <target branch name> – Rebase your currently checked out branch onto a target branch. This rewrites a commit(s) from the source branch and applies it on the top of the target branch.
git rebase --continue – Proceed with a Git rebase after you have resolved a conflict between files.
git rebase --skip – Skip an action that results in a conflict to proceed with a Git rebase.
git rebase --abort – Cancel a Git rebase. Your branch will be back in the state it was before you started the rebase.
git rebase <target branch name> -i – Initiate interactive rebase from your currently checked out branch onto a target branch.

git stash – Create a stash with local modifications and revert back to the head commit.
git stash list – Display a list of all stashes in your repository.
git stash show – View the content of your most recent stash. This will show your stashed changes as a diff between the stashed content and the commit from back when the stash was created.
git stash drop <stash> – Remove a stash from the list of stashes in your repository.
git stash pop <stash> – Apply a stash to the top of the current working tree and remove it from your list of stashes.
git stash apply <stash> – Apply a stash on top of the current working tree. The stash will not be removed from your list of stashes.
git stash clear – Remove all stashes from your repository.