GIT Flashcards
Working with Git hub and Cheat Sheets
How do you set up global credentials for all repositories?
git config –global user.name “Your Name”
git config –global user.email “you@example. com”
What do you do if you want to start a new git repository?
Navigate to your project directory and run:
git init
Downloads a project with the entire history from the remote repository.
git clone URL
Displays the status of your working directory. Options include new, staged, and modified files.
git status
Add a file to the staging area. Use. in place of the full file path to add all changed files from the current directory down into the directory tree.
git add [file]
or
git add .
git commit -m “Message”
Create a new commit from changes added to the staging area. The commit must have a message!
Add a file to the staging area. Use . in place of the full file path to add all changed files from the current directory down into the directory tree.
git add [file]
or
git add .
Show changes between working directory and staging area.
git diff [file]
Shows any changes between the staging area and the repository.
git diff –staged [file]
Discard changes in working directory. This operation is unrecoverable.
git checkout – [file]
Revert some paths in the index (or the whole index) to their state in HEAD.
git reset {<path>...]</path>
Remove file from working directory and staging area.
git rm [file]
How can you verify that the .git folder was created?
ls -a
How do you check if a folder is a git repository, if there are untracked files, staged files, or the working directory is clean?
git status
How do you remove git tracking from a project?
rm -rf .git
Navigate to the home directory
cd ~
navigate to the root directory
cd /
Move one level up in a directory tree
cd ..
Show the current directory path
pwd
List all files and directories in the current location
ls
List all files including hidden files like .git
ls -a
Clear the terminal screen
clear
What are untracked files?
Files not yet added to git
What are files that have changes but are not yet staged?
modified files
What do you need to do before committing files?
Stage files
How do you stage a file for the next commit
git add <file>
or
git add . to stage all modified and new files in working directory</file>
What saves changes to the repository history?
commit
git commit -m “added first test”
what is -m
let’s you add a commit message
How do you check your saved user details?
git config –list
What are the steps to pushing to a remote repository?
First commit changes
Connect to repository
git remote add origin https://github.com/username/repository.git
Push your changes
git push origin main
Pull latest changes
git pull origin main
How do you connect to a remote repo
git remote add origin URL
How do you push changes to a repo?
git push origin main
Show commit history
git log
List all branches
git branch
Create and switch to a new branch
git checkout -b new-branch
Merge a branch into the current one
git merge branch-name
Undo the last commit (irreversable)
git reset –hard HEAD~1
Clone a repository from remote repo
git clone URL
What is the commit id?
The SHA hash
I want to achieve this output. What do I type
commit e6d1f80e3b68df1b68f56ad8b02df6712a9c6392 (HEAD -> main)
Author: Your Name you@example.com
Date: Tue Mar 5 14:30:00 2024
git log
What are the steps to creating and committing a new file?
Create file
touch file.txt
stage the file
git add file.txt
check the status
git status
Commit the changes
commit -m “added new file.txt”
How do you switch to an older version of a project
git checkout <commit_id></commit_id>
What is the commit id or SHA?
It is a unique ID assigned to every commit. It allows you to switch to older versions.
What is the detached head state?
Can be accessed with
git checkout <commit_id>
While in detached HEAD state, you can view past commit, but changes won't be tracked unless create a new branch</commit_id>
Working directory
The actual files and folders you see in your directory
Staging area
Files added with git add, ready for comit
Repository
.git folder, the full commit history with tracked changes and branches
Branches
Independent lines of development in a Git repo
List all branches
git branch
Create a new branch
git branch <name></name>
Switch to a branch
git checkout <branch-name></branch-name>
Create a new branch and switch to it shortcut
git checkout -b <branch-name></branch-name>
Confirm branch name
git branch
How do you view a compact commit history
git log –oneline
What is HEAD
The head is the pointer that always refres to the latest commit in the current branch.
- Always points to the latest commit of the active branch.
- Moves forward automatically with each new commit.
- Can be manually changed to point to a different commit.
Explain this output:
Output:
~~~
e6d1f80 (HEAD -> third-branch) Added new feature
a7c3d21 (main) Updated README
d2b1234 Initial commit
🔹 Here, HEAD -> third-branch means that:
- HEAD is pointing to third-branch.
- The latest commit in third-branch is e6d1f80.
What is a Detached Head?
happens when you manually checkout a specific commit instead of a branch. HEAD will be detached because it’s pointing directly to a commit, not a branch.
-used for checking out an old commit for debugging
-can create commits, but changes will be lost unless a new branch is created
How do you enter detached Head state?
git checkout <commit-id>
~~~
📌 **Example:**
git checkout a7c3d21
📌 **Confirm detached state:**
git status
Output:
HEAD detached at a7c3d21</commit-id>
How do you prevent from losing changes in detached head state?
git checkout -b new-branch
will create a new branch so can continue working without losing changes
Exit detached Head and return to a branch
git checkout main
this restores Head to its normal state
How do you show the HEAD location?
git log –oneline –decorate
T or F: git switch will create a new branch
False. Must use git switch -c new-branch
-c will create the new branch.
list all tracked files
git ls-files
remove files
git rm filename.txt
How do you undo unstaged changes
git checkout –
git checkout – filename.txt
or
git restore .
Reset all unstaged changes in the current branch
git checkout .
Remove untracked files, deleting files without actually deleting them
git clean -dn
d - removes directories
n - no execution (dry-run)
Forces deletion without confirmation
git clean -df
Undoing staged changes
git reset filename.txt
Moves the file out of staging and back to modfied state.
What does git reset do?
git reset:
moves the branch HEAD backwards to undo commits
Undo the last commit but keeps changes staged
git reset –soft HEAD~# (# represents 1,2,3 etc.)
Undo last commit and unstage files
git reset HEAD~# (# represents 1,2,3 etc.)
Completely remove last commit and file changes
git reset –hard HEAD~# (# represents 1,2,3 etc.)
Delete branches
git branch -d branch-name
Force delete of a branch
git branch -D branch-name
or
git branch -D branch1 branch2
Steps to making and commiting in detached HEAD state
git checkout <commit_id>
git add .
git commit -m "Changes made in detached HEAD"
git branch branch-name
or
git switch branch-name
git checkout main
git merge branch-name</commit_id>
What is .gitignore?
- a file that prevents specific files from being tracked by Git.
- Useful for logs, system files, API keys, build files.
- list all of the files to ignore inside the .gitignore
Create a .gitignore File
touch .gitignore
Common ways to list files in .gitignore
Ignore all log files
.log
# Ignore all files in the node_modules directory
node_modules/
# Ignore all files in temp/ except temp/keep.txt
temp/
How do you create a Global .gitignore?
If you want all repositories to use the same ignore rules:
git config –global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global
Then create the file:
touch ~/.gitignore_global
