Basic Git Commands

Question 1

Create a new git repository

Answer 1

git init

Question 2

Add a file to the git repo staging area

Answer 2

git add <filename></filename>

Question 3

Commit the changes from the staging area to the git repo

Answer 3

git commit -m “Commit Message”

Question 4

Show the current status of staged and committed files for the git repo

Answer 4

git status

Question 5

Configure a global default username for git

Answer 5

git config –add –global user.name “SuperCoolGuy”

Question 6

Configure a global default email address for git

Answer 6

git config –add –global user.email “coolguy@gmail.com”

Question 7

Configure a local default username for git

Answer 7

git config –add user.name “SuperCoolGuy”

Question 8

View git settings (user, email, etc)

Answer 8

git config –list –local

git config –list –global

Question 9

View a single key from the git configuration settings

Answer 9

git config –get <key></key>

example: git config –get user.email

Question 10

Edit the git config file directly

Answer 10

nano .git/config

(from the root of the project folder)

Question 11

Remove a key from the git configuration

Answer 11

git config –unset <key></key>

Question 12

Remove all instances of keys with a given value

Answer 12

git config –unset-all <key></key>

example: git config –unset-all user.name
(assuming user.name has been set more than once)

Question 13

Remove an entire section of keys from the config

Answer 13

git config –remove-section <section name>

example: git config –remove-section user

Question 14

Where are the git config files stored for the system, global, local, and worktree levels?

Answer 14

System: /etc/gitconfig
Global: ~/.gitconfig (hidden file)
Local: .git/config (in the project folder)
Worktree: .git/config.worktree (in the project folder)

Question 15

View the past commits and hashes

Answer 15

git log

Question 16

Show the git log, but only with the last commit and turn off paging

Answer 16

git –no-pager log -n 1

Question 17

Show the git log with full reference IDs and branches

Answer 17

git log –decorate=full

Question 18

Show a compact view of the git log (one line for each commit)

Answer 18

git log –oneline

Question 19

Using plumbing commands, view the contents of a blob file.

Answer 19

1.) git log (to see the commit hashes)
2.) git cat-file -p <hash-of-commit> (to see the tree hash)
3.) git cat-file -p <hash-of-tree> (to get blob hash)
4.) git cat-file -p <hash-of-blob> (to view blob file contents)</hash-of-blob></hash-of-tree></hash-of-commit>

Question 20

Check the active branch of the git project

Answer 20

git branch

Question 21

Change the name of a branch from “main” to “default”

Answer 21

git branch -m main default

Question 22

Change the global default branch from “master” to “main”

Answer 22

git config –global init.defaultbranch main

Question 23

Remove the branch named “main”

Answer 23

git branch -d main

OR

git branch -D main (force delete)

Question 24

Create a new branch named “feature_one”

Answer 24

git branch feature_one

Question 25

Create a branch called feature_two and switch to it

Answer 25

git switch -c feature_two

Question 26

Switch to the main branch (old way or new way)

Answer 26

git switch main (new) OR git checkout main (legacy)

Question 27

Show the git log including a graph of the branch history

Answer 27

git log --graph --all

Question 28

Merge a branch called 'feature_two' into 'main'. (Two commands)

Answer 28

1.) git switch main 2.) git merge feature_two

Question 29

Rebase a git branch named "feature_three" to "main" (2 commands)

Answer 29

1.) git switch feature_three 2.) git rebase main

Question 30

Reset the last commit, changes in the index, or the worktree - but keep the changes.

Answer 30

git reset --soft

Question 31

Reset the last commit, changes in the index, or the worktree; removing all staged files and deleting anything from subsequent commits

Answer 31

git reset --hard NOTE: this command should be used with caution

Question 32

Add a remote branch to a git project

Answer 32

git remote add Example: git remote add origin https://github.com/userguy/project1 NOTE: URI could also be a local file path to another git repo on your local machine

Question 33

Download any remote git repos metadata that have been added.

Answer 33

git fetch

Question 34

Show git log for the remote repo for a branch called feature_two

Answer 34

git log origin/feature_two

Question 35

Upload your local git repo to the remote git repo

Answer 35

git push Example: **git push origin main**

Question 36

Configure git to use rebase automatically in place of merge

Answer 36

git config --global pull.rebase true

Question 37

In a .gitignore file, ignore the venv folder

Answer 37

nano .gitignore venv/*

Question 38

In a .gitignore file, ignore all .txt files

Answer 38

nano .gitignore *.txt

Question 39

Exclude a specific file from being ignored

Answer 39

nano .gitignore !important.txt

Question 40

Add a comment to a .gitignore file

Answer 40

nano .gitignore #Some Comment Here

Question 41

Initialize a new local git repository by pulling down a remote github repo.

Answer 41

git clone https://github.com/user-name/repo-name