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Git Bash Cheat Sheet Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

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This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Key Defini­tions

This cheat sheet contains git-sp­ecific terms and jargon. Here's a run-down of all the terms you may encounter:

Basic Defini­tions
• Local repo or reposi­tory: A local directory containing code and files for the project
• Remote reposi­tory: An online version of the local repository hosted on services like GitHub and GitLab
• Cloning: The act of making a clone or copy of a repository in a new director¸
• Commit: A snapsh­ot/save of the project you can come back to
• Branch: A copy of the project used for working in an isolated enviro­nment without affecting the main project
• Git merge: The process of combining two branches together
More advanced defini­tions
.gitignore
file: A file that lists other files you want git not to track (e.g. data folders, outputs, and any local files that shouldn’t be seen by the public.
• Staging area: a cache that holds changes you want to commit next
• Git stash: another type of cache that holds unwanted changes you may want to come back later
• HEAD: a reference name for the latest commit. 
HEAD~n
syntax is used to refer to older commits (e.g. 
HEAD~2
refers to the second­-to­-last commit)

Starting a project

git init [project name]
Create a new local repository in the current directory names [project name].
 
git clone [project ssh url]
Downloads a project with the entire history using the SSH URL from GitLab.

Make a Change

git status
Displays the status of your working directory. Options include new, staged, and modified files. It will retrieve branch name, current commit identi­fier, and changes pending commit.
 
git add [file]
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 .
Stage all files
 
git commit -m "­commit messag­e"
Create a new commit from changes added to the staging area. The commit must have a message!
 

Branches

 git branch
List all local branches. Add 
-r
flag for all remote branches. 
a
flag for all branches.
 
 git branch new-branch
Create a new branch called 'new-b­ranch'
 
 git check out new-branch
Switch to 'new-b­ranch' branch & update the working directory
 
 git check out -b new-branch
Create a new branch 'new-b­ranch- and switch to it
 
 git check out -D new-branch
Delete 'new-b­ranch'

Merging

git checkout b
git merge a
Merge branch 
a
into branch 
b
. Add 
--no-ff
option for no fast-f­orward merge

Undoing Things

git mv [existing_path]
[new_path]
Move (&/or rename) a file & stage move.
 
git rm [file]
Remove from staging area only.
 
git checkout [commi­t_ID]
View a previous commit (READ only)
 
git revert [commi­t_ID]
Create a new commit, reverting the changes from a specified commit
 
git reset [commi­t_ID]
Go back to a previous commit & delete all commits ahead of it (revert is safer). Add 
--hard
flag to also delete workspace changes (BE CAREFUL)

Share & Update

git fetch
Downloads commits and files from a remote repo into your local repo (no merge).
 
git pull
Downloads content from a remote repo an updates local repo to match content (git fetch + git merge).
 
git push
Upload local content to remote repo.

.gitignore Patterns

*data/
Ignore any directory named data.
 
confidential.txt/
Ignore file named confid­ent­ial.txt.
 
*.csv
Ignore any file with the format .csv
 
git config
--global core.e­xcl­ude­sfile [file]
System wide ignore pattern for all local repos.
As best practice you should not upload any data or outputs (html, figs) to git. You can find some useful tempates at GitHub .gitignore Templates.
NB: You should not hold any sensitive data on GitLab as they may be accessed by others