Getting Started with GIT - Cheatsheet for GIT operations

Git is a free and open-source version control system that allows for collaboration and coordination between programmers, software engineers, and software developers working on source code. As an open-source product, Git is free to use for individuals and organizations — the program’s source code itself is “open” and available to anyone. This cheat sheet summarizes commonly used Git command line instructions for quick reference.

Install GIT

GitHub provides desktop clients that include a graphical user
interface for the most common repository actions and an automatically
updating command line edition of Git for advanced scenarios.

GitHub for Windows
https://windows.github.com
GitHub for Mac
https://mac.github.com
Git distributions for Linux and POSIX systems are available on the official Git SCM web site.
Git for All Platforms
http://git-scm.com

CONFIGURE TOOLING
Configure user information for all local repositories
$ git config --global user.name "[name]"
Sets the name you want attached to your commit transactions
$ git config --global user.email "[email address]"
Sets the email you want attached to your commit transactions
$ git config --global color.ui auto
Enables helpful colorization of command line output

CREATE REPOSITORIES
Start a new repository or obtain one from an existing URL
$ git init [project-name]
Creates a new local repository with the specified name
$ git clone [url]
Downloads a project and its entire version history

MAKE CHANGES
Review edits and craft a commit transaction
$ git status
Lists all new or modified files to be committed
$ git add [file]
Snapshots the file in preparation for versioning
$ git reset [file]
Unstages the file, but preserve its contents
$ git diff
Shows file differences not yet staged
$ git diff --staged
Shows file differences between staging and the last file version
$ git commit -m "[descriptive message]"
Records file snapshots permanently in version history

GROUP CHANGES
Name a series of commits and combine completed efforts
$ git branch
Lists all local branches in the current repository
$ git branch [branch-name]
Creates a new branch
$ git checkout [branch-name]
Switches to the specified branch and updates the working directory
$ git merge [branch]
Combines the specified branch’s history into the current branch
$ git branch -d [branch-name]
Deletes the specified branch

REFACTOR FILENAMES
Relocate and remove versioned files
$ git rm [file]
Deletes the file from the working directory and stages the deletion
$ git rm --cached [file]
Removes the file from version control but preserves the file locally
$ git mv [file-original] [file-renamed]
Changes the file name and prepares it for commit

SAVE FRAGMENTS
Shelve and restore incomplete changes
$ git stash
Temporarily stores all modified tracked files
$ git stash list
Lists all stashed changesets
$ git stash pop
Restores the most recently stashed files
$ git stash drop
Discards the most recently stashed changeset

REVIEW HISTORY
Browse and inspect the evolution of project files
$ git log
Lists version history for the current branch
$ git log --follow [file]
Lists version history for a file, including renames
$ git diff [first-branch]...[second-branch]
Shows content differences between two branches
$ git show [commit]
Outputs metadata and content changes of the specified commit

REDO COMMITS
Erase mistakes and craft replacement history
$ git reset [commit]
Undoes all commits after [commit], preserving changes locally
$ git reset --hard [commit]
Discards all history and changes back to the specified commit

SYNCHRONIZE CHANGES
Register a repository bookmark and exchange version history
$ git fetch [bookmark]
Downloads all history from the repository bookmark
$ git merge [bookmark]/[branch]
Combines bookmark’s branch into current local branch
$ git push [alias] [branch]
Uploads all local branch commits to GitHub
$ git pull
Downloads bookmark history and incorporates changes