Git Cheat Sheet

Cheet says: Version control is your friend!

Basics

Initialize a repo
git init

Clone a repo
git clone https://github.com/user/repo.git

Check status
git status

Add files
git add file.txt        # Single file
git add .               # All files
git add -p              # Interactive (pick chunks)

Commit
git commit -m "message"
git commit -am "message"  # Add + commit tracked files

Push
git push origin main
git push -u origin main   # Set upstream

Branches

List branches
git branch          # Local
git branch -a       # All (including remote)

Create branch
git branch feature-x
git checkout -b feature-x  # Create and switch

Switch branches
git checkout main
git switch main     # Modern way

Delete branch
git branch -d feature-x      # Safe delete
git branch -D feature-x      # Force delete
git push origin --delete feature-x  # Delete remote

Merging & Rebasing

Merge
git checkout main
git merge feature-x

Rebase (cleaner history)
git checkout feature-x
git rebase main

Interactive rebase (squash commits)
git rebase -i HEAD~3

Undoing Things

Unstage file
git reset HEAD file.txt
git restore --staged file.txt  # Modern way

Discard changes
git checkout -- file.txt
git restore file.txt           # Modern way

Undo last commit (keep changes)
git reset --soft HEAD~1

Undo last commit (discard changes)
git reset --hard HEAD~1

Revert a commit (safe for shared branches)
git revert abc123

Stashing

Stash changes
git stash
git stash push -m "description"

List stashes
git stash list

Apply stash
git stash pop           # Apply and remove
git stash apply         # Apply and keep
git stash apply stash@{2}

Drop stash
git stash drop stash@{0}

Viewing History

Log
git log
git log --oneline
git log --graph --oneline --all

Show commit
git show abc123

Diff
git diff                # Working vs staged
git diff --staged       # Staged vs last commit
git diff main..feature  # Between branches

Remote Operations

Add remote
git remote add origin url

View remotes
git remote -v

Fetch (download without merge)
git fetch origin

Pull (fetch + merge)
git pull origin main

Push
git push origin main

Force push (careful!)
git push --force-with-lease  # Safer than --force

Useful Aliases

Add to `~/.gitconfig`:

[alias]
    st = status
    co = checkout
    br = branch
    ci = commit
    lg = log --oneline --graph --all
    unstage = reset HEAD --
    last = log -1 HEAD

Pro Tips

See who changed what
git blame file.txt

Find when bug was introduced
git bisect start
git bisect bad          # Current is bad
git bisect good abc123  # This commit was good

Clean untracked files
git clean -n   # Dry run
git clean -fd  # Actually delete

Amend last commit message
git commit --amend -m "new message"