There are hundreds of Git commands available to use for one reason or another. However, in this article, you will find the top 20 most used Git commands, along with a short description and an example of usage for each.
If you would like to view all other Git command examples you can see them all by going here.
*Please Note: These Git commands are in no particular order.
Top 20 Git Commands
git config
This sets the configuration values for your username, email, gpg key, preferred diff algorithm, file formats and more:
git config –global user.name “Your Username Here”
git config –global user.email “user@domain.com”
git init
This initializes a git repository, and creates the initial .git directory in a new or already existing project:
git init
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/username/GIT/.git/
git clone
This command creates a Git repository copy from a remote source. The command will also add the original location as a remote location so you are able to fetch from it again and push to it if you have permissions:
git clone git@github.com:user/test.git
git add
This will add file changes that are in your working directory to your index:
git add
git rm
This will remove files from your index and your working directory so they will not be tracked:
git rm filename
git commit
This Git command takes all of the changes written in the index, creates a new commit object pointing to it, and sets the branch to point to that new commit:
git commit -m ‘committing added changes’
git commit -a -m ‘committing all changes, equals to git add and git commit’
git status
This Git command shows the status of files in the index versus the working directory. It will list out files that are untracked (only in your working directory), modified (tracked but not yet updated in your index), and staged (added to your index and ready for committing):
git status
# On branch master #
# Initial commit #
# Untracked files: #
# (use “git add <file>…” to include in what will be committed) #
README
git branch
This lists existing branches, including remote branches if ‘-a’ is provided. It will create a new branch if a branch name is provided:
git branch -a * master remotes/origin/master
git merge
This will merge one or more branches into your current branch. It also automatically creates a new commit if there are no conflicts:
git merge newbranchversion
git reset
This command will reset your index and working directory to the state of your last commit. Effectively taking you back:
git reset –hard HEAD
git tag
This Git command tags a specific commit with a simple, human readable handle that never moves:
git tag -a v2.0 -m ‘this is version 2.0 tag’
git pull
This will fetch all the files from the remote repository and merge them with your local one:
git pull origin
git push
This Git command will push all the modified local objects to the remote repository and advances its branches:
git push origin master
git remote
This shows all the remote versions of your repository:
git remote origin
git log
This command will show a list of commits on a branch, and include the corresponding details:
git log commit
847ttg41e8a0d768fb37ff7adohs6754b61a99a0abe Author: User <user@domain.com> Date: Wed June 11 08:37:07 2014 +0400 first commit
git diff
This command will generate patch files or statistics of differences between paths or files in your git repository, index, or your working directory:
git diff
git archive
This command will create a tar or zip file that includes the contents of a single tree from your repository:
git archive –format=zip master^ README >file.zip
git gc
This is a garbage collector Git command. It will collect garbage from your repository and optimize the repository as well. You should run this periodically:
git gc
Counting objects: 7, done.
Delta compression using up to 3 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (7/7), done.
Writing objects: 100% (9/9), done.
Total 9 (delta 1), reused 0 (delta 0)
git fsck
This will perform an integrity check of the Git file system and identify corrupted objects:
git fsck
git prune
This Git command will remove objects that are no longer pointed to by any object in any reachable branch. Like pruning a tree of useless branches:
git prune
Understanding how to use Git commands is important if you are going to be using Git a lot. Hopefully some if these more popular Git commands are easy to use and understand.
Author: Jeremy Holcombe
Growing up in Hawaii, Jeremy started his freelance writing career doing resumes, business plans, article writing, and everything in between. He now specializes in online marketing and content writing and is part of the Content Marketing Team at GreenGeeks.